The New Adventures of Chloe and Clark
by legendarytobes
Summary: AU - During "Fever," Clark is saved from dying by Chloe. Confused, his investigations take him deeper until he realizes there's much more to Chloe than he thought, and, also, more to her cousin "Lois Lane"  assumes Chloe's power activated earlier .
1. Chapter 1

_"I want to let you in on a secret. I'm not who you think I am. In fact, my disguise is so thin, I'm surprised you haven't seen right through me. I'm the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend. Sometimes I want to rip off this facade like I did at the Spring Formal, but I can't because you'll get scared and you'll run away again. So I decided that it's better to live with a lie than expose my true feelings. "This is so much easier when you're unconscious. "My dad told me there are two types of girls. The ones you grow out of and the ones you grow into. I really hope I'm the latter. I may not be the one you love today, but I'll let you go for now, hoping one day you'll fly back to me because I think you're worth the wait."_

__

The words were foggy, half-heard, and yet they plagued his mind. Clark replayed them in his mind over and over for a week. He thought that it possibly had been Lana at first, that she'd come to see him, but his father informed him after his mother recovered and they could focus on more inane things, that Lana had never come to visit him, claiming that illness scared her.

That hurt Clark deeply.

He didn't realize that Lana wouldn't even see him when he'd been dying. He'd wanted her to be there badly, but she'd not come through for him, and he couldn't understand why. His mother insisted it was her problem and her own hang-ups, but it still stung. He thought he'd meant more to her. Apparently he hadn't.

Chloe had come instead.

She'd come, read those words to him, and then he'd woken up five minutes later, healthy as if he'd never had so much a cough, let alone a spiking fever.

Chloe had missed school for a week. He wondered if he'd insulted her by calling out Lana's name-and yes, his titanium trap memory was replaying that too-and refused to come to school, too embarrassed to see him. Lana was cloying lately, talking about how they missed their shot when they had their limo "not a date" last year and with everything that then happened with Jesse. Clark didn't understand her renewed interest with him, when she'd been so cool lately.

Sighing, he walked into the Torch and stopped. Chloe was there and she looked oddly clammy.

"Chlo?"

She sat down on the sofa and coughed a little. "Ugh, flu's going around. I missed so much school daddy forced me out of the house even if I'm 100.3!"

"That doesn't sound so reassuring."

"It was worse last week. I think I'll be okay in a few more days."

He nodded and pulled a rolling chair out from the nearest desk to her. Swinging one leg over it, he leaned on the chair back and up at her. "Chloe, I know you came to see me."

"You were sick; I brought a Hallmark card."

Clark gulped, unsure of how to broach her written confession. "I think I said something horrible to you."

"You were sick and I understand that Lana was gonna be the first person you'd want to see when you were waking up. It's not a big deal. You, um, didn't remember anything else but saying her name, did you?" She was looking back at him, eyes wide with fear and he realized she hadn't counted on him ever hearing it, let alone remembering it word for word and with every inflection.

She'd not dealt with an alien memory before.

"No why? Did I miss some Gabe Sullivan recommended jokes?"

"Nothing off color," she said, relaxing. "So, how about the new lunch menus. I hear they're gonna go to grade Z filler."

"No such thing."

"It'll taste like it."

"Chloe, look, I need to ask you something and it won't go outside of this office because I can't explain how I know this and you probably can't explain your half of this either. We can just pretend this never happened."

Chloe tensed and her smile fell. "I don't understand?"

"I wasn't sick, Chlo. I was _dying_. You know I was, don't you?"

"I knew that Helen had been called in special even though you don't like doctors. Hell, except for the broken ribs, I don't even remember you having a cold."

"You either," Clark added.

She looked away. "I went to Smallville Medical Center and begged it out of Helen. She said she didn't know how to help you and that the prognosis was terrible."

"You begged it out of her?"

She swallowed. "Exactly. I guess she broke confidentiality for a hysterical best friend. I was scared for you."

"Chloe, what my mom and I had, there was no cure for it."

"Mrs. Kent got better. Clark, what are you getting at? If you ask me questions, I'll ask mine back."

"I-"

"The mold spore was unlike anything seen on Earth. I hacked the CDC records so I know. Your mom was flatlining and a flash of light was seen by the entire hospital staff, the lights went out, and when the generators kicked in, your mom was sitting up healthy. None of that makes sense."

"Well I had a 105 degree fever and was in a coma and five minutes later I was awake and as healthy as I'd ever been!"

"Why was the mold spore extraterrestrial, Clark?"

"Why did I wake up fine, Chloe?"

She looked down at her nails. "I can't tell you."

"I can't either."

"See stalemate. Nothing weird happened; we'll just go with that story," she huffed.

"I never knew you to hide secrets before."

"Well, then," she said, gathering up her purse and walking out the door. "You never really knew me."


	2. Chapter 2

"Chlo, we really need to talk about this," he said, coming up next to her locker as school was letting out. "Something really unusual happened."

She glared at him. "I told you at free period. I don't want to talk. You're seeing things that aren't there."

_Like where you're waiting for me?_

Clark ignored that feeling of hope and curiosity flaring in his stomach. "Chloe, please, I need to know what happened. I need answers."

"Well isn't that ironic. Coach Walt, Sean Kelvin, Ian Randell. I could use some answers for those too! What about Eric Summers, he's in an accident with you and suddenly he's fucking Superboy? What are you?"

He reeled back as if she'd pulled meteor rock on him. "How can you even ask me that?"

She slammed her locker door and slung her back over her shoulder. "Don't play stupid now."

"Well _what_are you then. Say the CDC is right," he said taking long strides to keep up with her quick steps. "Say it was an extraterrestrial spore? How on Earth could you heal me from that?"

She looked around and paused, making sure no one was listening and got very, very quiet. "I think that's an operative question, isn't it? Clark, don't push or I _will_push back. I care about you, I do, but if it's a question between the two of us? I am _not_going to Belle Reve so just drop it."

"What?"

"Your secret or the one you think I have. Maybe they're better left in the dark. There's only one place people who are 'special' end up in this town. Forget about me, alright?"

"Would you really turn on me?"

She sighed. "No, but we need to just pretend we don't know things about each other. We need to just let it go."

"Yeah cause I can just ignore everything forever."

"I have."

"What?"

"For three years, ever since _The Tales of the Weird and Unexplained_magically appeared on your trunk and I felt that random breeze, ever since then, I've pretended not to notice about you. Every lie, every excuse, every badly hidden disappearance, I knew I'd never get a real answer. Clark, please, if you ever cared about me, you won't dig further."

"You've dug a lot on me in the past, about my adoption."

"Then I'm sorry. I guess we're both reporters, but please don't do this. I don't want to run again. I don't want to end up in Belle Reve."

"Again?"

"Hey, Chloe!" Pete called out, coming down the hall. "Look I am having the worst time with history and we have that exam in a few days. Do you want to do a brother a favor and help me review?"

She looked back at him and then to Pete and nodded. "I'd love to!"

"Mom, what do you do if you know someone's lying to you?" Clark asked, biting into his afternoon snack of a double decker BLT. After all, he was a growing whatever the hell he was.

"Is this about Lex?"

"No, actually," he replied stiffly. "It's not about Lex at all. Why?"

"Well Lex is the one who tends to be loose with the truth."

"Mom, it's about Chloe."

His mother sighed and set down some potato chips for him. "Has she been digging again?"

"No, not really, I mean not at all."

"Then I don't understand what the problem is. If she's not closer to your secret, then everything should be okay."

"She's lying to me, though, being sneaky, and I don't like it. I feel like suddenly I don't know her at all."

His mom pulled out a chair and shook her head. "You understand that's how she sometimes must feel about you and how Pete used to feel about you too."

"So I should tell her that I'm an alien from the planet who-knows-where?"

"Of course not, and you know that your father and I believe your birth place doesn't dictate who you are."

"Dictates who I'm not," he muttered, moving on at her frown. "What if though, you know there's something special about them, something, I dunno, important and if you just knew a little more then it'd click?"

"She's your best friend."

"I know."

"And you always resented her for digging into your secret and you're doing better now that she dropped everything about your adoption."

"I know that too, but it's hard."

"Trusting someone, trying to overlook things about them that don't add up. I know honey."

"I just, mom, I need to know."

She patted his hand. "Sweetheart, that's exactly how she feels about you. If you want her to respect your privacy, you owe her just as much."

"Do you want to know what I think is happening?"

"No, I really don't. It's not my place to know. Clark, don't hurt her. Sometimes there are secrets we can't bear to share with the world, even if we want to. You know this better than anyone."

"I know but I just...it's Chloe, but maybe she's not all I thought she was."

"I would think if you suspect she has an ability that you'd think more of her. Again, you know having a power doesn't change who you are."

"No, it's not like that. Mom, I think she saved my life."

Clark was at Met U. He had sped there after dinner and by holing up in the loft with claims of an intense French test the next day. He wanted computers that were faster than his and that were more likely to be plugged into _The Daily Planet_and _The Metropolis Journal_than his laptop would be.

He wasn't Chloe. He couldn't hack in a single bound, but he could find a place with some databases to comb through.

Cracking his knuckles in front of him, Clark typed in his first set of keywords. "Okay, let's see if this gets anything 'Chloe Sullivan.'" He cursed when he got back a list of hits from her internship at the DP.

"Right, damn it. Alright, how about 'Accidents and 1998-2000'? That'd match Chloe in middle school here in the city."

Pressing enter he groaned again. It was a long list. He was gonna have to sort them further. Shaking his head, he pressed the filter tab and added 'miracle rescues' to the search criteria. He start reading through the thirty-five hits that came up. Some didn't match anything he thought Chloe could do, some were clearly just an embellishing angle to get people to read the papers covering the incidents, some had to be another meteor mutant's M.O. because they belied strength or speed or something else, but not healing.

It took forty-five minutes to find it, a bus accident report from March of 2000, six months before she'd moved to Smallville. Even if it was the Journal with a less auspicious reputation than the DP, Clark was a little surprised by the angle:

_Accident Victim Claims Angelic Visions_

"You have to be kidding me," he whispered to himself, mindful of the glares he was getting from the studying students. "This has to be crap."

The article went on to detail how the bus had slipped driving over a bridge that had iced over in a late winter surprise blizzard. It spun out, crashed into the side, and five passengers were seriously injured. Jose Melendez, the main witness for the article, claimed he'd punctured a lung and was slowly suffocating to death when an 'angel' touched him and saved him. He even insisted she glowed when she did it.

Clark frowned, half-remembering a rose like glow spreading across the room as he'd started waking up.

The M.O. did fit.

Reading further, Clark was shocked to find the end of the piece:

_Only one victim was rushed to Metropolis General and was declared dead upon arrival: Lois Lane, 13, survived by her father. A tragic footnote to an accident that could have been far more severe, 'angel' or no._

Lois was supposed to be Chloe's cousin in Metropolis, her older cousin that she was going to stay with before she got kidnapped last spring. She was nineteen and a sophomore this year at Met U. Taking advantage of the student dorm directory available via the library database, Clark typed in Chloe's cousin's name.

There was no record of her anywhere.

Just to double check, he used the email directory on the school's website.

No matches either.

"Lois Lane" didn't exist or, if she did, she was supposed to be dead.


	3. Chapter 3

"Who the hell is Lois Lane?" Clark muttered to himself. He used Google to look her up and ended up finding the same basic things-death in a bus accident, survived by a father General Sam Lane and a sister Lucy Lane, had been a student at P.S. 128 in Metropolis. There was one mention of her winning an essay contest back in third grade about her favorite amendment and getting to make a presentation at the Mayor's Ball (she chose the First Amendment).

But there was nothing about her since her death in 2000. There was no record of a Lois Lane anywhere, at least far as Met U, The Journal, The DP, or The Inquisitor were all concerned. He wasn't a cybergenius like Chloe so it wasn't like he could hack government records to find out more about Lois's life on the base and if the army records listed her as dead as well.

The obituary he found in The DP five days after the accident seemed to help support the notion that Chloe's cousin had been dead at least a year before Chloe was supposed to go visit her.

Except Chloe had sworn she was staying in the dorms that weekend while doing her interviews. Why on earth would she lie about visiting a dead girl?

Clark next tried googling "Chloe Sullivan" and found the reverse result. Nothing about Chloe anywhere until The Torch articles online popped up 18 months ago. Hell, there wasn't a picture of her anywhere or of Lois for that matter. Lois died and six months later Chloe popped into existence.

Clark's mind ran the possibilities very fast. There was only one answer that really made sense. Lois and Chloe were the same person and Gabe Sullivan wasn't her real father.

Shaking his head, he printed out the article on the bus crash and Lois Lane's obituary. It was a start but he knew from being at The Torch that it wasn't proof. He needed to keep digging.

"What are you hiding, Chloe? What the Hell are you running from?"

"Pete, have you ever wondered about Chloe?" Clark asked, sitting down on his steamer trunk and watching as Pete pulled out his desk chair.

They were tired and sweaty, had spent an hour playing basketball. Okay, scratch that. ****Pete****was tired and sweaty. Clark was incapable of being either if green meteor rocks weren't around. Clark had started to hate playing basketball with Pete. If he won, Pete would complain he cheated. If he lost, Pete would complain that Clark was humoring. To be fair, even if he weren't a superstrong alien, Clark was almost a foot taller than Pete. He had the ultimate advantage out of the gate. Still, Pete complained.

Usually, at least once a game, Pete would nag him until he showed off his powers in a slam dunk or a speedy blur of a run to the basket. Clark obliged but never liked it. It made him feel like a pet, like a freak on display and he loathed that more than anything.

"What about her? Sometimes I wonder if the ink's gone to her head or if she'll ever think about where all her investigations are going to get her. I mean, death threats are not thing you want."

"The Coach Walt thing died down pretty fast," Clark offered. "No, I mean we don't know much about her. She came from Metropolis. Her dad works late hours at the crap factory-as Lex calls it-and her mom left when she was a kid."

"Yeah and?"

"We've never met Gabe Sullivan, actually. I mean, Lana asked if she could live with Chloe when Nell left town but then just sued for emancipation and moved into the space over The Talon."

"And? They don't like sixteen year olds live alone. Just cause her dad works crazy hours doesn't mean he's not there. You love Lex so much. He didn't hire an invisible person."

"I didn't mean he did. I just...how much do we really know about her before she came to Smallville?"

Pete frowned. "Okay, you're not the resident conspiracy theorist in our litte trio. What's going on?"

Clark sighed and started picking at the metal of the hinge, making it fold as easily as a human did play-do. He tried to ignore the way Pete's heart raced when he did that. "I dunno. I was just thinking about it. She wants to research me, and I have irregularities with a sham adoption and I get that."

"Yeah?"

"But things about her don't add up either. She said her mom left her when she was five, then when she was ten, one time she told you it was at eight? Why does it keep changing?"

"It's hard to remember being a kid?"

"That's not what I mean...her dad's never around, as if he doesn't want to be seen around town, just work and home."

"Okay and?"

"Why is she so invested in the rocks even? They were her crusade in eighth grade when the EPA didn't even give two shits. Why?" The hinge snapped off in his hand and Clark cursed, frustrated with the hammering in Pete's chest.

"Are you saying you think she's a meteor freak?"

Clark started playing with the hinge remains in his hand and looked back at Pete. "I don't know. I honestly don't know who she is."

"Huh?"

"I don't know who she is, if she's infected. I don't know as much about her as I thought, but it has crossed my mind lately that she could be infected and just never told us."

"Are you hurt?"

Clark shrugged. "I know how hypocritical it is for me, believe me I do. I want her secret, if she has one, and I'd do anything to avoid giving her mine."

"Why do you even think she has a secret? These things didn't pique your interest before?"

"I...I think she healed me, Pete?"

His friend sat up, rigid in his chair. "What?"

"I was dying, she came to visit me, there was some like flash of light, and I was 100% healthy and she was sick for over a week when she's never missed school before!"

"You think she's like Florence Nightengale but better?"

"Maybe. I...what do you think?"

"Sounds like she could be someone who heals people. What you had definitely didn't have a cure we could tell outside of how your ship cured your mom. So she's a freak?"

Clark didn't like the way Pete spat out the word, like he'd eaten a piece of gristle and was dying to get it out of his mouth. "Huh?"

"Nothing, I just never thought that of all people, ****Chloe****would be a meteor freak."

"There have been good people with abilities, you know. Ryan wasn't meteor infected but he was a good kid."

"Yeah, and name more-Tina Greer, Greg Arkin, Ian Randell, Jody Melville-I could go on forever. They're usually really dangerous! People with powers turn out to be dangerous!"

"Funny, that's not what you said about Ryan when you asked him to play poker after school last year so you could win a few hands. It's not what you say about me when you want to see me do a trick."

"That makes you sound like a trained seal."

Clark narrowed his eyes at his friend. "Well am I?"

"Excuse me?"

"Sometimes, Pete, I feel like you want to use me like a toy or watch the freak show off."

"I resent that. I helped you get the ship out of the military base so that you could get better, you know I did."

"I know, but the day I told you where I came from, you looked at me like I had green scales!"

"I was adjusting on the fly."

"And now, the way you're talking about meteor mutants...would you feel differently about Chloe if she were?"

"Jody almost sucked the fat and life out of me. You know, forgive me if I don't want to hug it out with meteor freaks."

"It's _Chloe_and we're not even sure."

Pete shrugged and grabbed his jacket. "I thought that about Jody and I almost died. Besides, maybe I need to head on home, wouldn't want you to feel like I was making you do tricks."

"Pete-"

He hated the way his friend stomped down the loft stairs as his final word.

"You look miserable," Chloe said quietly, as she entered The Torch offices. "Did you sleep off free period in here? I've never known Clark Kent to be tired before, well except that time with Eric."

He sighed and put his head in his hands. "I didn't sleep well last night, okay? Then I had to get up at 5:30 am to feed the cows before school. I feel bombed."

"Okay, I'll bite," she said, tossing her purse onto the floor by his feet. "What had Clark Kent unable to sleep?"

"I-" he started, unsure of how to continue.

He wasn't sure how to explain what he'd dreamed about. It was an old nightmare, one he'd had since he'd seen his ship, one about not even looking human some day. Maybe it had been all his bitterness yesterday about being Pete's pet alien. He didn't even know. He just didn't like dreaming about being scaly and under government observation.

"Oh, maybe I shouldn't have asked."

"Since when do you back off?"

"Since we have a stalemate going. Clark, I'm sorry. If you want to ignore things-"

"I dreamed I was in a lab," he said, unsure of where this was even coming from. He never shared with Chloe. He wasn't supposed to because she was a reporter. Hell, if Pete hadn't found his ship, he'd never have said a word. Most of the time, he wished he hadn't.

She paled but sat down next to him. "Is there a reason why you dreamed this?"

Clark looked at her and could see the fear on her face, see the sweat beginning to pool at her temples. "There's so many things I want to tell you."

She gave him a pained smile and patted his hand. "I feel the same way. Believe me."

One of them had to give and if it was going to be someone, then it was going to have to be him.

"Let's say that this room is like Vegas okay?"

"There are no showgirls here," she said, smiling genuinely.

"No, I mean whatever is said in The Torch, stays in The Torch."

"Clark I can't-"

"I will. Chloe, I dreamed I was an alien and the government had me, that they were experimenting on me, okay?"

Her eyes went wide and she worked her jaw over several times as if talking were impossible for her. "What?"

"I dreamed that-"

"No I heard you, believe me I did, but you shouldn't have said that."

He smiled sadly at her. "I said it was 'all a dream,' didn't I?"

"And this is Vegas?"

"Right, exactly. It never leaves here and it's just hypothetical, okay?"

"Clark, you shouldn't have told me a 'hypothetical.' You just shouldn't have."

"I want to. _Hypothetically_, I'm an alien, and last night I had another in a series of recurring dreams about being experimented on."

Chloe looked like she wanted to cry. "I didn't know."

"Well it's all 'hypothetical,' right?" he asked, his voice as steady as he could make it.

"Clark-"

He squeezed her hand back and was gratified that she didn't flinch or run away from him, didn't react the way Pete had. "Sometimes I have this dream. It scares me a lot, being locked in a lab, having people cut into me because I'm not human, the worst part being that..."

"...they can because you don't have any legal rights," she finished.

He frowned and looked down at her. "Who hurt you, Chloe?"

"No one, I was just guessing how scared you were. I can imagine that it would be horrible. Have you always known? I mean, are your parents...do they have nightmares too?"

"Adopted," he reminded her. "Not always, just different dreams. Before last year, I just dreamed about labs in general, then I dreamed about the alien part. I guess I had more inspiration."

She nodded in understanding. "The bridge accident."

"Maybe."

"And you've just...all this time? All these months not said anything about the nightmares to us?"

He sighed. "I don't want to be sent away. So many things scare me, Chlo. Last week, I was gonna die because, theoretically, something from my home planet was going to kill me." He squeezed her hand again. "I needed you to hear that, even if it never leaves The Torch, even if we pretend this never happened for the rest of our lives. Whatever you're running from, Chloe, you know I'm running too. Okay?"

"So we run together? Go hide out in Cancun?"

"Well this is all hypothetical. There are no labs, no aliens. There's no Lois Lane."

Chloe's expression changed instantly, as if he'd thrown ice water all over her. "What?"

He blushed and wanted to protest when she moved her hand from his. "I didn't-"

"Lois lives at Met U. I told you this. God, Clark, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"What?"

"Stories about aliens, labs, trying to get my confidence and then what? Asking about my cousin randomly. I have to go!" she said, grabbing her purse and rushing for the door.

Against every rule his parents had ever taught him, Clark sped and reached the door knob before she could. "Chloe, please. You have to talk to me."

She paused for a second taking in his ability, but she barely broke stride. "Lois Lane is a dead end, Clark, drop it. If you're having nightmares about labs because of what you are, theoretically speaking, then it'll be real if you look for her."

"Are you threatening me?"

"No," she said, tears running down her face as she reached for the knob and turned it. "They threatened me once. We can't let them find me again cause then they'll find you."


	4. Chapter 4

"Sweetheart, you only had two helpings at dinner," his mom said, coming up the loft steps with a slice of cake roughly the size of her head.

Clark sped over and took the plate and gestured to the sofa. "Mom, you've been sick. You shouldn't be carrying stuff aroud for me."

She waved her hand and leaned against his desk. "I feel amazing. I don't know what your ship did, baby, but I feel so much better than I have in years."

He sighed and started digging into his slice of chocolate chocolate cake. "I'm glad. I'm so sorry-"

"The spores can't be your fault too. I was the one getting preserves in the storm cellar. It was my fault."

He frowned. "Mom? Why were you getting jam out of there anyway? It's not like anyone has eaten any of that stuff in over a year."

His mom sighed and looked away. "I just thought it would be a nice change of pace."

"Well it was in a way," he replied. "Just try and be more careful. We know now that there is more around the farm that can be dangerous for all of us."

"You too. I was so worried when I heard you'd been sick. I never thought there'd be something out there that could hurt you too."

"Yeah, but luckily Chloe healed me."

"Clark-"

"Mom," he insisted, setting down his plate. "I'm serious. I know I can't prove it exactly, but I know I was dying, Chloe came in, I got instantly better."

"Do you think you were dying?" his mom asked, concern coloring her words.

"I honestly don't know. I had the highest fever I've ever had, the only one I've ever had outside of green meteor rocks, and you flatlined. I think without Chloe that I'd be dead. I really do."

"You've saved her life so many times."

"This isn't about evening stuff out or being even."

"I know this. I meant that you've been where she is, if you're right. You've been in that place, where you had to hope she'd let it go. I know she's had her bumps along the way, but she has dropped it when it mattered to you."

"I know and I know now I ower _her_, but I can't stop thinking about things. Mom, I really think Chloe's in trouble."

She started to stand and sighed. "How do you mean?"

"I think someone's after her."

"Why would you...oh, goodness," his mom said, swaying and passing out. She'd have fallen if not for him catching her with his speed.

Clark's mind was spinning. His world was shifting, unsteady as sand dunes. His mother wasn't feverish but she couldn't be woken up. He'd tried and when he couldn't, he'd taken her to the sofa in the living room and had his dad try. Neither of them could tell what it was but they were scared that the ship hadn't cured her after all. Considering the alien nature of both her ailment and her vaunted cure, neither of them thought it was safe to take her back to the hospital.

But he was sent to get Dr. Bryce.

Dr. Bryce who his dad was only now just informing him had seen his blood. Dr. Bryce who had to know what he was.

His mom could be dying. His best friend might be some dead girl named Lois Lane, and a doctor had seen his blood. Hell, suddenly his dad wasn't so anti-doctor. How did any of this make sense. His heart hammering in his chest, Clark knocked on the door and waited for Helen to answer.

"Not now! I said no residents!"

"Dr. Bryce...Helen? It's me Clark?"

The door opened immediately and he tried to ignore the predatory grin on her face. "Clark. I'd been dying to see you. How are you feeling? Your recovery and your mom's are nothing short of remarkable."

"Can I come in? I don't want to talk outside."

Her grin widened. "Of course you wouldn't. Come right in. There's a stool by the table."

He nodded and slung one leg over the metal stool and sat down. "Dr. Bryce, I don't know what you saw about me, but I can assure you that Smallville has always had oddities since the shower. There are people out there, no matter what the CDC and EPA say, who have been changed."

"Oh I'm aware. I've had patients with different abilities and Lex's own white blood cell count is astronomical, even beyond what you'd expect from a meteor mutant. Well, of course, except for one, but he's a special case indeed."

"Lex?"

"Everyone knows he's been changed because of how he lost his hair. A friend as close as you, has to know how many things he's survived, how many incidents."

"I do, but does Lex know what you're doing?"

"We're looking into it together. It's a project. I want to know more about the rocks and he wants to know more about what has happened to him. It's mutual fascination."

"He likes you poking around in his DNA?"

"His blood, actually. Of course he approved it. Fringe benefit of dating a Harvard-trained doctor."

Clark swallowed and suddenly it felt really warm in there. "I...look I can explain. If you know about the meteor infection then that's me."

"No," Helen answered, sauntering towards him. This time Clark tried to stand back up and tripped instead, landing backwards onto the floor. Groaning, he picked himself up and blushed at the huge crack he'd left in the tile of the office floor. She nodded. "That's quite an ability you have there, but I doubt that's all of what you can do."

"Look, you can't control how the rocks work, they just do."

"You're not a mutant. In fact, you were never human."

Every nightmare he'd ever had started with a person in a white coat glaring at him like this. "I was...I _am_."

She snorted and tossed him a slide. "This is all I have left of your blood sample. I destroyed the rest when I realized I couldn't help you. I have no idea what saved you, but it wasn't anything modern science can do. I know from Lex that you prefer astronomy-and I have no doubt why now-but how much biology do you know."

"It's actually my worst subject. I really don't like it."

"I suppose you wouldn't. You can feel free to destroy the evidence. I would and have all else I had. I was saving this for you in case you ever wanted to know a little bit more about yourself."

"I really don't."

"You're not human."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She nodded. "Understood, I know you'd never cop to it, but we both know that I know and we both _should_know that I'll never say a word, but take a look on the slide."

"I'd rather not."

"I know you're adopted. Even if I didn't, I've seen both your parents' bloodwork. They don't have chloroplasts."

Clark blinked. He'd had a little bit of cell biology this semester. He wasn't great at it or overly interested by he must have been mistaken. "I'm sorry; I don't understand."

Helen took the slide back from him. Pulling out a lighter, she burned underneath the slide, letting it go black and singed, ruining it for him. "Neither do I. You, Clark Kent, process sunlight like a plant. Now tell me again how human you are."


	5. Chapter 5

"I don't understand what that even means," Clark stuttered. "I'm not some fucking plant."

Helen quirked her head at him, studying him. "Never heard you not be a gentleman before. I didn't say you were a plant, clearly you're not. I just said your process sunlight for fuel the way a plant on Earth does. I suspect that's where a lot of your power comes from, almost like being a solar battery. If you'd like, I'm sure there are tests we could try together. Lex is learning so much more about his healing with my guidance. Wouldn't you like to know more about your limits, assuming you have any."

Clark swallowed and brushed past her. "I guess you'll never know. I'm glad you are going to keep my secret..." even if he doubted they could trust her with the maniacal gleam in her eyes. "...but I don't need to know more about my abilities."

"Do you want them gone? Maybe we could work on shutting them down," she said eagerly.

He turned and shook his head. "Helen...Dr. Bryce, I don't want to discuss what I am or what I'm not with you ever. I don't want to run tests or do bloodwork just to see. I want to be left alone. Please, don't hurt me or my family."

"Clark, I think that you need to embrace what's been given to both of us. You need someone to help guide you, set you on your way. I've always wanted-"

"To have a pet alien to study. I'm sure you have. Dr. Bryce, there are hundreds of mutants and apparently your own boyfriend for you to study, but I'm not one of those people," he finished, slamming the door behind him.

Surely it was his imagination that as he sped off, he heard her say _You'll be sorry._

"Chlo, God please, you have to open the door. You have to!" He called, still banging on it. He'd been out there for twenty minutes. It was 11 p.m., even if her dad had a late night at the plant as he often did, she'd have put The Torch to bed by now. She was home. She just was ignoring him. "Chloe! Please! It's my mother!"

Something stirred behind the door, a ruffle of curtain and two familiar green eyes were staring back at him. "What?"

"Chloe you have to open up. I don't care what's wrong with us or if we fought, please my mom's sick."

The door opened instantly. "Clark, what's happening?"

"I don't know! She was fine and we were in the loft talking and then she fainted and dad and I tried waking her up but we couldn't. We can't go to the hospital. We can't."

Chloe was already grabbing her coat, her Fairlane's keys dangling from her hand. "Why not?"

"We don't know what they'd find," he admitted following her down the stairs.

"You said your really are adopted that your parents aren't like you."

"They're not."

"Then Martha's normal; she wouldn't set off the freakshow five alarm."

Clark narrowed his eyes but noticed her projecting on her own abilties and nature as well. "We don't know that."

She stopped and looked up him then, her attempt to reach out and unlock her car forgotten. "Now I'm really confused."

"Chlo, you might have saved my life, but my ship-you know that type of _ship_-saved hers."

Chloe's eyes were huge. "You have a spaceship!"

"Focus!"

"Oh, I can see how instant extraterrestrial healing isn't something you want to broadcast. So why not just heat that baby up and cure her again?"

"Because she passed out and we're not sure if curing her is what the ship actually did. I don't know what to do. We can't take her to human doctors cause they'd have no idea what to do about this and wouldn't keep it quiet. I can't go to whatever the Hell I am doctors cause I'd have no idea where to start."

She blinked, "Whatever you?"

"You're the only person I know who can heal her, like you did me. Please, Chlo. I don't care if you have a billion superpowers. I just want my mom to be okay."

He watched her smile, that same, warm genuine one that made him feel safe.

Loved.

"Then pick a girl up. We'll be at the farm faster if you just blur me there."

His dad was confused to find that instead of driving back with Helen, he'd sped into existence with Chloe in his arms. Well apparently, even if he'd been desperate, his dad had told whom he wanted about Clark (in a way). Now Clark was making command decisions of his own.

"Clark what is Chloe doing here? How could you have even showed her your abilities? After everything with Pete-"

"Pete knows?" Chloe asked, tossing her coat on the rocking chair and kneeling down by his mom.

"Does Pete know about you?" Clark countered, wondering if he was on a special Chloe Sullivan All Access List.

"Know what?" his dad asked, genuinely confused. "Where's Dr. Bryce?"

"She wasn't on call and I couldn't show up this late at the mansion with no car," Clark lied. "I brought Chloe."

"An interview for The Torch won't help us."

Chloe sighed and shook her head. "Boys, I'm trying to work here. I...it's okay if you stay."

"Since it's my house-"

Clark put a hand on his father's shoulder. "Just let her work."

Chloe nodded and placed a hand over his mother's forehead. It was then he noticed it, the rose glow spread over her right arm and down, radiating out from the palm of her hand. After a few minutes of deep concentration, the glow ebbed and died.

His mom was still unconscious.

"Chlo, nothing happened." She looked back at him and he could tell from her furtive glances and the way she bit her lower lip that she was expecting him to freak out. Kneeling down, he took her left hand and squeezed it. "It's alright. I'll show you the rest of mine later and the ship."

"Excuse me?" his father roared.

"Chloe knows. She healed me with her ability and now she's going to help mom."

"Son-"

"You let Dr. Bryce see my blood and now I'm letting Chloe help us," he replied steadily, smiling at her. "It's okay; no one's judging."

She laughed. "It's not a judgment thing. That's a diagnostic."

"You can do that?"

She nodded. "Yes. Can't heal right if you don't know what you're trying to heal, you know?"

"Oh! And?"

"Some hypotension. I don't know why her blood pressure dropped so much but there's no fever, I can't feel any infection or bacteria or viruses. She's just dizzy."

"For this long?"

Chloe sighed. "It's an ability, not an exact science. Let me work my mojo and then someone's gonna have to take me to a place to rest and get some juice."

"What's that?" his father asked and he could hear him pacing behind them.

"I...I'm not a healer."

"Yeah, you are. I was fixed just fine!"

"No," she said, grabbing his forearm. "I'm not a healer exactly. I'm an empath. I have to take on someone else's sickness to heal them. I help your mom, I'll pass out for a bit and wake up needing a massive sugar rush. Just, if I fall will you catch me?"

Clark was startled by the similarity to what she'd said when she'd been high on the adrenaline parasite. "Yes."

"Good then," she said, reaching out for his mother.

The golden light that shone was so bright, even he had to close his eyes.

The tray felt heavy in his hands. He'd arranged it five times in the kitchen before his mom had ushered him out and up the stairs to his room. There really were only so many ways to present orange juice, toast, apples, and some graham crackers. He was just hesitating.

He wasn't sure he knew what to say to her.

"I can hear your boots! I know you're there, Clark," Chloe called and despite the exuberance, he could hear her own hesitation. He got that. Having their powers exposed to the other, made them far more naked than they would have been just stripped of clothes. "It's alright. I'm nervous too."

He nodded and slipped into the room, setting the tray on his night stand and handing her juice. "How do you feel?"

"Just dizzy. It didn't hurt, I just passed out."

"Does it hurt sometimes?"

"For you? Hurt like Hell. I was able to get home at least before the fever took me. It's why I missed like seven days of school."

"I know. I-"

She sipped her juice and grabbed a slice of toast. "Don't say 'sorry.' I'm sure you didn't mean to get a near fatal fever."

"Not really," he said, putting his hands on his knees. "Chloe, I can't thank you enough. I made you feel so uncomfortable this week, kept hounding you, and you saved my mom."

"Actually, your mom really wasn't that bad off. I think it was just a weird reaction to hormones maybe?"

"Huh?"

"Your mom's pregnant."

"No she's not."

"Yes she is."

"No she was just in the hospital lasst week. She wasn't pregnant when they admitted her and you can't know in like 3-4 days. That's not possible."

Chloe smirked and held out her palm. "Can you give me your hand?"

"I...is this going to hurt?"

"No, I promise," she said. Obliging, he placed his hand over hers and marveled at how it practically disappeared. She was so small compared to him.

"And now you're...whoa!" The rose light was spreading over their hands together and he could see Chloe biting her lower lip in concentration. The way it felt, tingled and warmed him. "Chlo?"

"I'm reading, one sec."

"Reading?"

"Getting a read on you. It's not emotionally based. I'm not a mind reader. I just read ailments. You hurt your knee when you were seven. There's a pin in it?"

Clark nodded. "I wasn't invulnerable then. I fell out of a tree in the back forty. I don't know where mom found the doctor to do it. I don't even really remember much, just that they took me to Metropolis and I was home in two days. Maybe my grandfather helped keep it quiet? I don't know."

She nodded then frowned, reaching out for his chest. "Rickman shot you. It bruised, badly, but it hasn't done that in a long time has it?"

He looked away. "No not in maybe a year."

"I...there's something else, it's on the edge I think, like through novacaine even. I can feel something in my bones and my stomach, like it should burn and I should be screaming but I'm not?"

"Meteor rocks. I'm glad you're not feeling what it's like 100% with your diagnosis. When I feel it, I think my blood boils. The red just make me an asshole but the green poison me. I think it'd be like a human and years of uranium poisoning all in 30 seconds."

She pulled back and he frowned at the loss of the sensation between them. "I'm really glad then I don't feel that. I didn't even...how can you live in a town where every five feet something can irradiate you. I could only barely feel it, numbed as it was, if it were at full power, I'd be screaming."

"That's usually how it feels," he said, looking back at her. "I wasn't...what you found wasn't..."

"I'm the one who just read your past in injuries and you're asking me if _you're_the freak?"

"Maybe neither of us are freaks," he countered, not sure how much he bought that today, not after what Helen had told him. "So now that I know you're better than an X-ray, I'm inclined to think you were right about my mom."

She sat up and nodded. "I really...I think it just happened, maybe three days. It just got implanted. I don't know why that would make her faint, but I swear she's very, very early stage pregnancy."

"Incredibly early! That's not even close to a fetus yet."

"No, but technically, she's carrying a passenger," Chloe said. "You look confused."

"Mom can't have kids. She had a miscarriage before I ever came, and it was supposed to have made her unable to conceive."

"Well I guess those doctors weren't any good."

"She saw three opinions, even as far as Gotham. She's not supposed to be able to have kids the real way."

Chloe frowned but didn't say anything for a few long minutes. "I think she conceived, please forgive me cause eww, but I think this is from _after_she got cured by your ship."

"I don't know what that even means."

"That it's your ship?"

"No that it helped get her pregnant. Do we think this is a bad thing?"

"I do the readings, I don't know what's cooking in there. All I know is it's influencing her blood pressure a little. If the pregnancy takes she might have more hyoptension later is all." She quirked her head at him. "Why? Do you think that the whole E.T. thing might affect the baby?"

"Huh?"

"E.T.? 'Phone home?' 'I'll be right here, Elliot?' I know you live on a farm, but you're not Amish."

"I'm actually not allowed to watch movies about aliens, but I guess it's that Spielberg one?"

She sighed and patted his hand. "Then I'm sorry for being culturally insensitive, that's the one. I just mean, this is out of my area. I can't tell you what's happening with the pregnancy, just that it exists. Is there a reason to think that the baby could be in danger? Or that it might turn out with abilities too?"

"Your guess is about as solid as mine. I don't know anything at, oh God."

"Clark?"

He was bent over, trying not to hyperventilate. God, he needed a less active imagination. "What if we're like parasites?"

"I'm really confused."

"I don't know anything about my people, where I'm from. I know mom and dad found me and the ship in the shower. I know I looked about three and my powers started showing up after I'd been here a few months, that I started normal."

"Where are your birth parents?"

"I dunno. I don't know where they are, if others like me came in the shower. I don't know how I'm supposed to grow or where I come from. Christ, Chlo, I don't even have a name for what I am."

"I didn't realize."

"You thought I came with a manual? I wish I had, but what if this is some weird parasite thing? Ship helps mom get pregnant and then you have little hybrid baby?"

"Clark, you need to breathe more."

"I just...what if this something that was planned all along? What if it's some evil invasion technique!"

Chloe snickered. "Are you invading?"

"Well, no."

"Then I think you're going to be okay. We just have to get more answers about the ship is all."

"Yeah, cause my parents just found the key like a few days ago. Somehow dad got it from the CDC, I guess it was in our fields somewhere?"

She frowned. "That doesn't really make much sense."

"I know but it happened. But I tried doing anything more with the ship once I was better. You put the key in, it hovers, does nothing interesting, turns back off and, before you ask, whatever language it is covered in then I don't speak it."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I'm really worried. It can't be good for the baby that it only exists because an alien spaceship was involved."

"A Clark-ship. A Clark-ship helped do this. You don't have any evil motives. So far your ship just hovers. If we look at this logically, I'm sure we can figure it out."

"Yeah, but I've been stonewalled!"

"That's cause you've not had Chloe Sullivan's investigative skills behind you."

"Chloe, about that. Look, everything's all out here. You know I'm an alien and I'll show you my ship, I promise, but I have something I need to know."

She sighed and looked down at the bed spread. "You want to know who Lois Lane is still?"

He nodded. "All I know was that she was in a bad bus accident where people who should have died didn't and she did. Your cousin, if she ever existed, died before you ever came to town."

She closed her eyes. "You have to get how hard this is."

"I do."

"I didn't think you did, even with your secret, until I felt the pain. You haven't just tripped over the meteor rocks. People have used them against you, haven't they?"

"A doctor or two and Roger Nixon, yeah."

"Nixon?"

"We took care of it," Clark groused, not wanting to elaborate on Lex's connection to _The Inquisitor_reporter or why he was dead. "A reporter had you and green meteor rock and he was going to show you off, wasn't he?"

"Dad stopped it. It doesn't matter. I'm okay."

She reached out and squeezed his hand. "Tell me about it."

"I really-"

"It makes my story easier if I hear yours."

He swallowed and squeezed her hand back gently, seeking support. "It was a set up. I don't even know how he was onto me. He just realized I wasn't who I was supposed to be. He rigged my truck so it'd explode with me in it."

"Oh my god!"

"It did but I can't be hurt by that anymore. I mean, a couple bruises maybe, I'm not even sure if it did that."

"That's why you couldn't drive for the formal."

"Yeah, he got footage of that happening and of my ship. Then he found me and shoved meteor rocks in my pocket when I was helping to clean up after the storms. If my dad hadn't stopped him, I'd have been an exhibit far and wide by now, probably special guest of honor at Area 51."

"Is that real?"

"I'm not taking any chances," he said ruefully. "But I don't know. Yeah, he was the closest I've come to being caught, but Dr. Hamilton got really suspicious too, before the jitters killed him."

"I was closer."

"Huh? No you didn't catch me."

"No, I mean I was _caught_."


	6. Chapter 6

Clark's heart sped up and he had to remind himself not to grab Chloe too tightly. It didn't make sense. She was sitting right here. Someone with her abilities, they'd never be let out of a lab once they were put in. He wasn't stupid.

He might be the most valuable specimen on Earth but the applications of her powers to advancing medicine were basically limitless.

"No, you're here."

"'Chloe Sullivan' is in Smallville, but Lois Lane was in Star Labs."

"How long?"

"About six months," she said and he could hear her voice wavering.

"Chlo-"

"I have to get this out. You know then. You know what it's like to have someone restrain you and start prying at your weaknesses, to be at someone's mercy and realize that to them you're just a thing."

"Yeah but they've never had me all the way. I've escaped every time, as much blind luck as it has been. I didn't even realize. I knew that you and Lois had to be the same girl. I figured it was soem undercover thing. How can you be here if you were in a lab?"

"Well I can explain it," she said. "I got my power when I was about maybe ten. I had this hamster and he was dead in his cage one morning. I cried over him and the next thing I knew, I felt horrible and Mr. Whiskers was running on his wheel like nothing happened. To prove to my dad I could do it, I even healed this place on his finger where he'd sliced it fixing our A.C. I mean, it took a while to figure out all the on-off stuff, and I realized no matter how much I practiced that it was gonna have that trade off, that I was going to be hurt back."

"Did you start, what? Were you on the bus on purpose, looking to help people?"

"No, Dad, Lucy and I...we were just coming home from a school play. It was late and when the accident happened there were just so many people. It was more than a cut finger or a broken arm like when Lucy fell down ice skating the year before that."

"Lucy Lane is your sister?"

Chloe nodded. "Yup, General's daughter and everything. But there were so many people Clark and they were screaming and I had to help them. Tell me you understand that."

"Of course."

"But when I finally reached the last person, it was too much. He had this punctured lung and when I healed him, I started feeling like I was going to die. I had this horrible pain in my side and I just wasn't able to breathe or think. Everyone was staring at me, talking about what they'd seen. I mean I couldn't hide what I did. I glowed in front of a bus!"

"Your dad, erm the General, must have been furious."

"Incredibly so and then the paramedics showed up and it was such a circus. The General wanted to ride with me but they didn't have enough room for him and Lucy and he couldn't leave her alone. I just remember crying so much, just tears cause I could barely breathe, let alone wail. I was crying and watching the door shut and daddy was looking on about to rush to the next ambulance-any vehicle-to get to Met Gen behind me. But I never showed up."

"Someone intercepted and found you instead."

She nodded. "There was never a trip to the hospital. I guess whoever was running the show had feeds and bugs out there listening for incidents of people with unusual abilities. It was a trick. They'd sent the rigged crew to take me back to Star Labs. I spent until early August there."

"Jesus that's five months!"

"Believe me, I remember," she replied, and she looked away, her eyes becoming glassy, as if she were seeing the place all over again. "The arrangements were oddly not what you'd think. I mean clinical in the lab test rooms but otherwise almost like this expensive detox. I mean it'd be like a lodge or wherever a celebrity is sent for rehab on the inside. I had this huge bedroom and, I swear, it was like this fucked up form of summer camp."

"There were others?"

She nodded. "Ten of us, including me. Nine of us were meteor rock infected, the tenth was this really sweet kid named Bart. He'd been changed by a lightening strike and ran faster than even you do."

Clark whistled. That was pretty damn fast. "So everyone had abilities?"

"Oh yes and valuable ones, I'm sure-telekinesis, strength, speed, my healing-they just had to find a way to contain us. One girl, Alicia Baker, had to wear a special bracelet so she wouldn't just teleport away."

"I didn't even know teleportation was possible."

She laughed bitterly. "You're really ruling out things now with all you are able to do? The people there weren't like you, no one can do all that you can, I'm sure, but they were definitely valued. I don't think that my captors bothered with low level crap like my car mechanic who stretches. Everyone who was there had something valuable or dangerous."

"You're not. You heal!"

She shrugged. "We'll come to that part later."

He frowned. "I don't see how saving lives could ever be dangerous."

"It's not exactly what I do, but you'll see," she admitted, a little brusque in her tone. It was the way she got when he asked too many questions about layouts and it was surreal to have the same rhythm in a conversation about revealed powers and clandestine labs as about lunch menus for the week.

"Sorry, I just...you were in a lab."

"Worst nightmare, isn't it? I can't imagine anything I'd been afraid of since I first manifested and I am sure your parents have scared you shitless about them."

"They didn't even have to that much. I know what happens to a person whose different. I knew from a young age what would ever happen to me if people found out I was weird."

Chloe nodded and squeezed his hand. "It's why I wished you hadn't found out about me. Knowing is dangerous, if they look for me or use me some day to get other 'special' people-"

He felt his eyes flash. "No one is going to take you back, ever."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

"You haven't been back yet."

"I've been sloppy with my profile. The more times I heal someone and it comes out, the more I risk stories getting back to them. It's just the odds I am running."

Clark smiled and squeezed her hand back. "But you still can't resist helping, can you?"

She nodded. "I have this power, and I can save people's lives. How can I not use it?"

"It feels heavy doesn't it? Like every time you're just doing history homework or watching South Park, you could be out helping someone, like your life and your gifts are on loan for everyone else's sake."

"Exactly. I tried to explain that to daddy and Lucy, even to Uncle Gabe."

"So you are related."

"Yup, but no one understands what that drive's like."

"I do."

She smiled sadly and looked back to the window. "I know why we both had to hide and lie for so long; I just wish we'd known earlier about each other. It's nice someone gets all of this."

"We know now. I'm _here_now. So you were there for five months. I doubt it was S'mores and sing-a-longs."

"No, like I said, when we weren't being tested, the others weren't all bad. Bart was sweet and we hung out the most. Sometimes Alicia and I would talk. A few weren't terribly rational."

"Like Tina or Ian. They were violent."

"Meteor rock poisoning apparently causes psychosis in up to 80% of cases. I'm just lucky."

"Chloe, I'm sorry."

She ran her thumb over the back of his hand from where she still held it clasped. "Did you make the rocks come on purpose?"

"I was a baby."

"Then it can't possibly be your fault. Mom chose to drive us through Granville that day to take me and her to see my grandparents. It was just dumbluck and the wrong end of a rock. Only someone incredibly bitter and petty would blame a little kid for that."

Clark nodded. "I still feel-"

"And only by using my power when dad begged me not to did I end up where I did. It's not about you sometimes."

"Still, I'm glad you're the other 20%."

"So far," she muttered, but continued on before he could press. "Once a week was testing. They broke bones in three places to see how fast and how well I'd self heal."

Clark wanted to protest that that was impossible. No one could go through have the same bones broken over and over twenty plus times and be alright, remain normal looking, but he remembered again that Chloe wasn't normal. She wasn't like him, exactly, but she was closer than most people would ever be. Frowning, he activated his X-ray vision and scanned her body.

"Your right femur, your left wrist and your lower jaw. Jesus, Chlo."

"How?"

He shrugged. "X-ray vision. I have a lot of different abilities."

Automatically, Chloe brought the blanket up to her chest. "I...have you ever?"

He blushed. "Once, when I was on the meteor rock-the red kind-I looked at your butt. You have a birthmark, sort of looks like a heart."

"Since that seems to be a mind altering substance for you, I'm not going to press on it," she said, still covered. "I got used to it. In two months, the healing was instantaneous and stopped even leaving scars."

"Chloe, I, bone breaking? How can you be so clinical about this. It was cruel."

"It happened and those were good days. Once a month, the benefactors of this place, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Teague would come. She had a special interest in me. Always wanted to see how my powers were evolving, and not in fun ways. Drowning, stabbing, point blank shots to the head. You name it; those days she tried it." Her voice was scarily detached and cold as she spoke, as if she were relating facts about someone else, but her shoulders shook with the effort to hold back tears.

He was in bed beside her in an instant, over top the covers, holding her close to him. "All this time and you hid it from everyone but your uncle."

"No from everyone. I don't talk about it. I don't want daddy and Lucy and my uncle to know how bad it was. I just can't. They'll ask and want to talk about my feelings and it'll make it real."

"It was real."

"All of that," she said quietly, "It happened to Lois Lane and she died there. I think about it all as happening to someone else and then the memories and nightmares haunt me less."

"Chloe, that's not really very healthy."

Understatements, he was a master of them.

"I have to move on. Smile at the right times, and laugh at the jokes. I have to be 'Chloe Sullivan' out there or someone will find me. I can't go back there, Clark, not ever. It almost killed me once, metaphorically speaking. You know what the irony is?"

"This isn't a very funny or ironic situation."

She sighed and gripped his sweater. "I can't die, at least I don't think I can. Any inmate, as far as I know, would have the option if they were creative enough to end it on their own terms. I can _never_do that. If they take me back, that kind of testing could literally go on for decades, maybe just this side of forever."

"Chlo, I-"

"I have to get through this, I do, or I'll never get it out of me and we'll never ever talk about this again, do you understand?"

"But you need to."

"I need to forget it ever fucking happened. I just need you to know so you know what we're dealing with and why I can't let them find you and how much more danger you've put yourself in than even Lionel Luthor or the occasional rogue cop or scam reporter."

"Alright, but I can't promise to drop this forever."

"Then I can promise to stonewall you," she said coldly. "The last time, I don't even understand this. Genevieve-Mrs. Teague-demand to be left alone with me. She started questioning incessantly about some stones and I had no idea what she was talking about. She insisted I was something called 'The Traveler' and that I had to know where they were. When I wouldn't answer, she...I don't know how to describe this."

"I'm an alien and you're an all powerful mutant. What could be more bizarre?"

"I think she's a witch."

Clark laughed, despite everything, but sobered when she didn't follow suit. "A what?"

"She had this book with her, ancient looking thing, thick and leather bound-at least I hope it was leather-and said the right phrases, made the right motions and then I don't even know what. She shocked me. Like fucking lightening."

"Then she's a mutant like you."

"I don't think so or if she is, it used to be called something else and she needs the rituals to access her abilities. Think about it, if magic is just chemistry and moving energy around like physics, why would it be so impossible? Or if witches were humans with special abilities once upon a time...what I could do would have gotten me burned at the stake five hundred years ago."

"Actually they didn't...you know what, nevermind. But witches?"

"Kyla Willowbrook was a skinwalker. You're E.T. Is it really that off?"

"I guess not. So however the way she did it, whatever way you want to call it, she shot concentrated energy out you."

"Yeah, and I _reflected_it back at her. I'm not a healer, Clark, I'm an empath."

"I don't know if I understand the difference."

"I've shown you that I can heal and read/give diagnoses. You know I heal by taking on and understanding others' pain; you've seen that twice now. With Genevieve was when I learned I could reflect pain back."

"Huh?"

She rolled her eyes and sat up against the head board. "Hit me. Just go on ahead and slug me full out in the nose."

"Ah, Chlo, if I did that, your head wouldn't be attached to your neck anymore to say the least."

"Clark, trust me."

"I'm not supposed to hit women."

"For fuck's sake, Clark, hit me. I promise you won't even hurt me."

"Okay, but I'm only gonna go like half what a human guy would do and I'm only going to cause I know you heal instantly cause mom's gonna kill me if she knows."

"Fine, hit me!"

Clark gulped and took a swing to her jaw and was amazed when he didn't touch her. Instead his fist hit a barrier, a field of rose light that was millimeters from her skin. When he did, he dropped his hand immediately and shouted. "Fuck that hurt!"

She nodded and stroked his jaw. "You'll be tender until, I assume, your own normal healing kicks in. You're a whatever you are and you felt what it was like to hit yourself, for lack of a better turn of phrase."

"Ouch."

"Yup. Maybe going full out would have been a bad idea," she said. "I can't actively hurt anyone. It's not in my power, but I can wait for them to attack me-punch, stab, some inhuman ability like Mrs. Teague's-and kablam."

"Kablooey," he noted, rubbing his jaw.

"Exactly. She did that to me in the lab. My own instincts kicked in and I, uh, might have brought the lab down when I deflected her second blow."

"You what?"

"I didn't mean to! I just, the energy wasn't like focused anywhere and it blew a hole through three of the testing cells and set mine on fire. Alicia teleported out of hers to avoid the smoke and to god knew where. Bart sped out of his and saved me, got me back to the base. Daddy shipped me out as soon as he could to Uncle Gabe, who he hadn't talked to in years, but was still deeply fond of Ella, my mom, cause of how close Moira, my late aunt, and she were. He did it as a favor to Ella and cause of me reminding him of Moira."

"Do you ever see Lucy and your dad?"

"I go to Gotham once a month and send postcards from 'Nellie Blye.' I never give much details but have this grand fantasy life I tell them about where I'm rich and go to Paris and things. We have code words hidden in every postcard so they know I'm still okay. For Christmas and her birthday, I send Lucy a package from Star City-Uncle Gabe's good about driving me out to these places-and dad too. I _never_send Father's Day stuff. That'd be suicide."

"I..."

"And you thought your life was top secret," she replied, smirking a little.

"This really isn't funny."

"I had to adjust a lot. Like I said, I keep this in a box in the back of my mind and, except for the nightmares, I never, ever open it. Lois Lane is dead, Clark, and she's not coming back."

"But if you needed to talk more about it-"

"I don't, trust me," she bit back.

He frowned and hugged her anyway, relieved when she let him do that much. "But what about Genevieve? Did she die?"

Chloe shook her head. "Officially, Genevieve suffered an accident in a sauna while skiing in Switzerland. She hasn't gone out in public in two years due to what _The Inquisitor_called extensive facial scarring. She's alive but she's burned pretty badly and so now she wants something out of me I have no connection too and I'm sure pissed I ruined her. I cannot be caught by those people again."

"How bad off are you now that you healed me and mom? We won't say anything, we promise."

"I know you won't cause you can't explain the spores and cause you've been caught before. Like I said, you understand that fear and pain."

"That's how I bought favor with you. Not because we're friends and not because we're both different-"

"Freaks," she said bitterly.

He froze a little at that before continuing. "But because you realized I knew what it was like to be stolen and abused."

She nodded and touched his hand. That rose glow seeped from her finger tips into his palm. It felt amazing, like every hug or kiss to the cheek he'd ever had in his life rolled up into one warm wave. Affection incarnate. "Whoa."

"There's a lot of benefits to being empathic. You were always my friend, Clark, and a good one. This is just...we understand each other and this is me being grateful for it."

"Amazing."

"You say that but you can run faster than sound and apparently see through skin. I think that's pretty smoking cool, not to mention the healing and the strength stuff."

"Yeah but I just-"

"Mutual powers appreciation society," she riposted, hopping up and stretching. "So you said you had a ship?"

"No, wait. What about the Wall of Weird? Publishing on other people?"

"The Wall is to get the word out there when the EPA won't. _The Torch_gives out the stories that others won't. I don't publish on the ones I've met in hiding, but we do report the facts about what happens to student. I don't do conjecture but if Justin Gaines killed Principal Kwan for example, then it's news."

"But meteor mutants are like you."

"Someone has to know about the other 80% and someone has to know about the rocks; they're deadly in ways the CDC could never have imagined."

Her tone was harsh and distant again and he realized there was someone detached beneath Chloe's facade, that 'Lois Lane' had been broken and might never really heal, so she hid behind the army training she'd absorbed from her father.

She was a good little soldier who moved on with her mission.

It pained Clark to realize so much of her innocence, perhaps all of it, had been stripped from her.

"So," she continued, shaking his hand as he stood up as well. "You know about me and I know all you know about yourself."

"Which basically could fill a thimble."

"We'll figure you out starting with your ship, take me to it!"

"You're way too excited," he commented, marveling at how back to regular Chloe she was, how she'd shut off that side of her past and her pain. It worried him.

"Aliens, Clark, beings from other worlds. The answer to are we alone in the universe? I can't ever tell anyone but it's like I _knew_all along. I truly did and I think you're amazing."

He grinned and felt warm. "Well, as far as I can tell, you save people's lives and take zero credit for it. To me, you're not just a hero, you're a superhero."


	7. Chapter 7

"So your ship?" she prodded, grinning broadly. It was disorienting how excited and classic Chloe she could be about this after everything she'd talked about, all her terrifying memories and denials.

Clark blushed. "Yeah, I do have one of those don't I."

"You're not gonna be embarrassed about it now, are you?"

"Well, no. It's just, well, alien stuff."

"You saw me glow a lot today. I think we've gone through the 'you show me yours and I'll show you mine' stage," she added squeezing his forearm as they walked out the door and to the stairs.

"I know but the last person I showed the ship to, he didn't take it well."

"Pete?"

He nodded and swallowed hard as he came down into the living room, to the waiting eyes of his parents. Clark hadn't explained anything, just rushed off to feed Chloe. He didn't know how to answer everything that was going on, not anymore.

"Chloe," his mom started, her tone confused. "I don't know what you did or how you did it."

"Meteor infection," she clarified, coming down the stairs and giving his mother a hug. "I'm just glad it came in handy. I wasn't sure I could make it work."

His father shook her hand. "But you saved her or at least woke her up. If there's ever anything we can do for you..."

"If you could keep my secret and never mention it to anyone, then we'll call it even. I don't want to go to Belle Reve."

His mom squeezed her hand back. "Never. Of course, Chloe, we'd never say anything."

"Good and I'll never say anything about Clark."

His father stiffened. "There's nothing to say about Clark."

"He's an alien," Chloe replied, apparently having notime for pleasantries. "He's an alien; I'm a mutant and neither of us can afford to have anyone know about us ever. I think that's a fair trade-he's quiet about me and I stay quiet about him."

His father turned an unflattering shade of purple. "Clark Jerome Kent, did you do what I think you did?"

He stood as tall as he could and tried not to feel nervous. "I did."

"Clark!" his mom shouted, dropping Chloe's hand, but not standing. She probably was going to feel a little light-headed for a while. "How could you?"

"How could Chloe reveal herself when she clearly doesn't advertise being a mutant? I did it because it was fair and because she risked lot for our family. Besides," he hedged, "I told Pete and didn't end up in trouble and dad let Dr. Bryce take a sample of my blood."

"What?"

"Are you serious?"

His mom and Chloe echoed.

His father looked away, toward the fire place. "I made a decision. Clark was dying and we were out of options."

"So you just let a doctor look at his blood?" his mom asked.

"It was Helen. Clark trusts her, don't you son?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, hating the way Chloe studied him. She could tell always when he lied.

"That's not the point, Jonathan. I know you were worried, but that was such a risk. Chloe, Clark, if you could go to the loft? Your dad and I have a lot to discuss, sweetheart."

Clark blushed a little at the endearment and grabbed Chloe by the hand, ushering her out to the storm cellar. He'd tell his parents about that side detail later.

When they got to the cellar, Clark had no compunction about smashing the lock. It had never been a problem for him; he just had never had no interest in going down there. After he learned about his true origins, he had even less desire to go there and commune with his ship.

He hated the damn thing.

Still, just because the lock was smashed didn't mean that going down that long stair case didn't weigh heavily on him.

A small, warm hand rubbed his back. "Clark, I thought I was going to see something smoking cool."

He stiffened a little and he could tell she noticed because she dropped her hand. "Do you think this will change how you feel about me?"

"I don't know. Are you little and green?"

"No."

"Are you furry and eat cats?"

"Um, double no."

"Are you a worm addicted to coffee and working for the Men in Black?"

"Complete no," he said, laughing a little. He wasn't sure it was all defered nervousness or not. He sighed and relaxed again when she took his hand. "I just...Pete hated it, hated me for holding back and hated me for coming from it."

Her jaw dropped. "Pete would never! You're like brothers."

"I guess we're like brothers as long as I'm human," he said, finally opening the door and coming down the stairs with her. "He looked at me like I molted and become some giant mucous monster right in front of him. It hurt."

"Clark-"

He sighed and dropped her hand. Walking over to his ship-that fucking piece of proof besides his abilities that he wasn't human-he pulled off the tarp and waited for her to circle him with wide eyes too. "Well here it is. Exhibit A of the Clark Kent freakshow."

Chloe slapped him on the back. "Don't. I think you're amazing."

He grinned a little. "Well that makes two of us."

"You think you're amazing? Mr. Kent, the ego," she said, walking to his ship. "Wow, this is really actually tiny."

"First of all, I mean I think _you're amazing_, you goofball. Also, I was only an infant, I think, when they put me in here. Obviously, even if I could figure out how it worked, no way I could make a return trip."

Chloe's shoulders fell at that and she looked back at him. "Would you go?"

He frowned. "I can't go. There's no way to get back."

"No," she said, hesitating to touch the ship before he nodded his assent. "I mean, if tomorrow you birth parents magically showed up on the farm ready to take you back saying this was all some weird vision quest/coming of age set of tasks, would you go?"

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I'd miss mom and dad. I'd miss you and Lex and maybe Lana, although I think the way she's been acting lately sucks. Even Pete most of the time."

"I see," she said and he noticed how she didn't mention anything about the other girl.

"I'd really miss my parents more than anything because without them, I'd never have survived here, but, God Chlo, can you imagine it? A place where I don't have to hide or feel like a freak? A place where everyone else does exactly like I do and it's not weird or _alien_. I can't tell you what I'd do unless it came to it because I love my family and my friends but the chance to be normal, even if it's by going a million light years away..."

She nodded and continued to stroke the ship as she kneeled by the inscription on the outside. "I ask myself that hypothetical a lot. I mean different version, but the same basic idea. If I could get rid of my ability somehow, would I?"

"And?"

"It's as pointless to ask as about your birth parents. They haven't shown up yet and as far as I know, there's no way to cure your own DNA."

"But would you?"

"I don't know. I really don't. I wish I hadn't...I wish I could live with daddy and Lucy again, that I had my real life back, but I like it here too, very much. I'm hunted and scared a lot but I have this gift. Like I said, I can save people's lives so how can I not do that?"

Clark nodded. "Like Florence Nightengale but like a hundred times more amazing."

She grinned and he noticed her cheeks flush a bit rose. "Okay, we really are going to get egos complimenting each other all the time."

Or maybe patch up our psyches, Clark thought but let her continue her evaluation of his ship.

"So the verdict, Nightengale?"

"Oh it's cool, but you're right I have nothing, Superboy."

"Superboy?"

"Meh, superpowers and you're not even sixteen yet. It seemed to fit fine."

He shook his head, not fond of the name. "Maybe. I think I need to work on a codename. Anyway, basically, all I can tell is some of the glyphs appear on the Kawatchee caves and that, supposedly, Earth used to be a tourist spot for my people. At least Kyla Willowbrook and Chief Joseph both insisted that someone called 'The Naman' had visited before. I somehow feel he wasn't the only one."

"What did he do here?" she asked, still peering at the writing as if she could read it if she squinted hard enough.

Clark hesitated, a little embarrassed by the story. "He fell in love. I don't know if this was vacation or scientific inquiry or even a first volley of conquest." He shuddered at that last option. "But he fell in love with a human woman and they became the father and mother of the Kawatchee people."

"So they have your powers too?"

"God no, I wish. They just don't get sick is all and live a long time."

"How long?"

"A hundred and forty, maybe 150. Chief Joseph was born in the 1890s."

"Oh my god!" she said, looking back up at him. "Are you serious?"

He nodded. "Otherwise they don't exactly superspeed or have X-ray vision, but they're like extremely distant cousins, I'd guess you'd say."

"But they don't have anything from Numan about your planet?"

"Naman," he corrected off handedly. "No, not anything except he was a traveler from the stars. It's not exactly a very concrete set of facts after five hundred plus years. If Chief Joseph couldn't show me diary entries and pictures of himself from the turn of himself from about 1910, I'd never have believed them completely. I...the thought I'm compatible like that with humans is a fantasy I couldn't let myself have. I don't even know if I can still believe I am."

He was candy apple red by then; he was sure of it.

She shrugged and stood up, dusting herself off. "I'm sure one day you and Lana can test it out once you're through the bad patch."

"Chlo!"

She smirked. "Oh you know it'll happen. She's perfect and you're like the town hero and it's just like this told Ken and Barbie dream story. I'm being honest. I'm sure one day, it'll work out like you hope."

Maybe he didn't want it to work that way anymore, not after the letter and the way Lana mysteriously pounced on him after his fever, even though she'd never bothered to see him.

"Yeah, maybe. Most humans aren't exactly alien-loving."

"Maybe more than you think," she said, sitting on the stairs. "Was Pete really that bad? I notice that you two still hang out and that you were always hushing your voices when I came around, at least since September. I'm not stupid. I just figured it was guy crap."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You're sitting on the world's biggest secret. Don't ever apologize for hiding. I understand, okay?"

He nodded and sat beside her. "We're friends, sure, but it feels strained. Sometimes, he asks me to show off my powers when we hang out at the farm and sometimes I just catch him staring at me and I can't define the look he's giving. I sometimes feel like the world's weirdest pet around him, like he's working me up to doing big tricks for him."

"That's retarded. It's Pete! You two have been like brothers since you were five."

He sighed and started picking out the dirt from under his nails. "Maybe, but things can change so fast, Chlo. He's great in a lot of ways and helps cover for me and is another brain to pitch thoughts too, but I feel he doesn't really get it or that he doesn't see me as Clark anymore."

"I think that's stupid. I know I haven't seen the real dynamic in like seven months, but Pete adores you."

"I hope so," he conceded. "He's really helped, though. He helped me get my ship back and then tried to help with the fever. He's put himself out there for me more than once."

"Well there you go!" Chloe exclaimed. "That's exactly what I meant."

Clark nodded. "Thanks. We're not going to tell him about you, are we?"

"I'd rather not, not because he can't be trusted but because, frankly, it's not fair. The Teagues are still out there and they still want me badly. I don't want someone tortured or sodium pentathol'ed or whatever to get my secret. I really don't think these people would hesitate to kill for me."

"Because of what you can do; it's like fountain of youth stuff."

She shook her head and looked back at him. "No, not really. I think it's because Genevieve wants whoever 'The Traveler' is. I'm not it, but she thinks I am. Whatever 'The Traveler' does and whatever he or she has access to in the Stones? I think it's what she really wants and not just some mutant science lab."

"So I think we have a lot of missions then."

"We do?"

"Yup. We figure out what 'The Traveler' is and why the Teagues are obsessed with them. We figure out where I'm from, and, frankly, we need to keep an eye on my mom."

"You're really worried that the ship did something, aren't you?"

He nodded. "She already passed out with the what? Implantation of an embryo. I can't think this is a good sign."

"Okay, I'll keep an eye on her. I can read on the sly. It's not always a light show," she said. "But 'The Traveler' is something I have no idea where to start with. I've tried researching it for two and a half years and I've got nothing."

He grinned. "Well you didn't have to investigative prowess of Clark Kent behind you."

"I hack better than you can."

"And I can be anywhere in North or South America with my speed. I mean I can go to museums or archives or places that don't have online collections."

"Yeah, assuming the answer is in some dusty archive," she said, sighing. "Maybe we should start with you. It's a longer term mystery."

Clark nodded. "Definitely nothing my parents ever figured out, but where do you go to figure out about an alien language."

Chloe bit her lip. "Okay so this might be a far out idea, but have you ever heard of Virgil Swann?"

Clark was pacing in the loft. Chloe's idea was insane, absolutely batshit crazy. She proposed going to SETI's biggest funder, a man who had spent three decades searching for extraterrestrial life and basically confessing he was first contact. There was no way that was a good idea. Helen already knew and seemed less stable than Clark realized and, no offense to her, but now Chloe was in on his secret, which, even if she were Lois Lane, dead girl, was still dangerous. She might have her own burdens, but people would be after her just as easily if they realized she knew where an alien was hidden. It was like Nixon and Phelan with his parents or like Hamilton and Pete.

But the idea of going to basically the enemy with the white flag raised...

"Chlo, that's nuts!"

"Well I didn't say tell him. I just said go to New York with me and see what he knows."

"'Oh hi. I have this alien writing you might be interested in. Why sure I know where I got it from, my spaceship.' That's never gonna fly."

"I'm _not_suggesting a coming out party but the world authority on dead languages like the Kawatchee is a douche who hasn't uncovered much, and Dr. Swann's a two time nobel prize winner for his research."

Clark narrowed his eyes at her. "Then I'll be dissected by the very best! Chloe, you wouldn't offer yourself up to Genevieve Teague."

"No, but this is different. He's a philanthropist."

"Doesn't mean that he'd not want to cut me into little pieces...for the good of the world of course," Clark added.

"I don't have other ideas. We're out of our depth here and I doubt Babble Fish has a whatever you are setting."

"Until we figure out what I am, I'm going to go with 'Clarks,' okay? I come from a planet of Clarks."

She giggled a little. "Somehow I just see a planet literally of nothing but guys who look like you. There are definitely worse sights to behold."

He rolled his eyes. "Okay Planet of the Clarks or not, Dr. Swann is not, not, not an option."

"Fine, but we can at least work on hacking his records? I don't think a man that brilliant is stupid enough to have his dirty laundry in anything but a written record under absurd lock and key."

"Naturally."

"But maybe studying some of his research could help us."

"Okay then, I think that's fair, but we don't go to him, Chloe, not ever. I don't want to be in a lab any more than you would."

She looked out the loft window for a beat too long before she remembered to answer. "I get that."

Two weeks later and Clark was sitting at the kitchen table with his mother. His dad had gone to Metropolis to file some yearly farm permits and to drop off a new business plan with the Lowell County board. They were thinking of buying the Hubbard's back twenty and building on it. He was sort of hoping his dad got home late so that he could continue to enjoy his second helping of home made mac n' cheese.

Heck, if his dad never got back, he might move onto thirds. He was a grown Clark after all.

"You're not getting another helping."

"I'm hungry," he whined, pouting a little. "Dad is the one taking his time for dinner."

"The government at work. Sweetie, you're not getting fed extra, okay? It's not fair."

"Fine, I'll have to get dibs on half the cherry pie you made."

"Nice try," she replied.

"Mom?"

"Yes?" she asked, turning around to face him at the sink. "What is it?"

"Are you? What I mean to ask is how are you feeling."

She shrugged. "No fainting, no weird mold spore attacks. I feel really great since Chloe healed me. Why? Is it going to wear off."

He chewed on some noodles. "No. It doesn't work that way. One visit from Dr. Chloe and you're fine."

"I'm touched she helped me, you know I am. That was a big risk for her."

"Why do I feel a 'but' coming?"

"But," his mother said. "She knows about you."

"So do Pete and Helen Bryce. It was fair to tell her since she gave me her secret to save your life, or possibly do so, and since she definitely saved mine."

"I know but I worry about too many people knowing. I don't believe for a minute Chloe would hurt you but-"

"She could get in big trouble like Pete almost did. I've thought about that, believe me."

"And?"

"She's already got trouble and a reason to hide with her own ability, considering Belle Reve's great record for housing the meteor infected. Fair's still fair."

"Just keep a watch on her, okay? I don't want her or Pete ever getting hurt because they were brought into this family. It's not fair to them."

"Believe me, I know," Clark replied. Idly, he activated his X-ray vision to look into the oven. The cherry pie was rising and bubbling but still not golden brown yet. Darn. To his surprise, his mother stepped in the way to look as well at the dessert. When she did, Clark noticed something that terrified him.

The embryo wasn't really an embryo anymore.

It was a fetus.

"Chloe, Jesus, be home," Clark half-prayed to himself, knocking on her door. It occurred to him that some days it was advantageous that her Uncle Gabe worked late. "Chloe please!"

Finally, he heard the lock unclick and she was frowning back at him. "Clark?"

"Mom's really pregnant."

She frowned at him as if he'd hit his head and ushered him into the room. "Yeah, I told you that. You X-rayed her to finally double check?"

"No, you don't understand at all. Mom's really pregnant as in I think she's further along than she should be."

"Right," Chloe said, amused. "When did you become a fetal development expert. You failed that part of human development."

"It didn't interest me," Clark replied, tone clipped. Human biology had depressed the hell out of him last year. It wasn't his fault he wasn't paying attention in the middle of an identity crisis.

"Did you Google for visual aids? Did you double check you weren't just jumping the gun. I mean she is a bit out from conception now.:

"She's two weeks from conception!"

"Right but if the cells multiplied or it has a bit of a neural tube column, that's not atypical."

"What about fingerprints?"

She gaped at him. "You couldn't possibly have vision good enough to see that."

"Actually, I do. It was about the size of maybe a strawberry. It was moving and had a face and did I mention fingers and fucking finger prints."

Chloe took a breath. "Okay, just in case I'm off about human development, let's look at my textbook from last year..." Clark sped back to his loft and handed her his copy. "Whoa!"

"I don't want to wait for you to even go upstairs. Please check."

She nodded and thumbed to the right pages. "You didn't do this yourself?"

"I...I wanted moral support and to make sure I wasn't freaking out about the wrong thing."

She nodded and then dropped the book. "Clark?"

"What?"

"She's at ten weeks total, eight past conception."

"That's not possible. It's only been like two weeks since she fainted."

"Are you sure you X-rayed her right?"

"Yes. I studied her for at least an hour and my memory is photographic!"

"And there were fingerprints and a neck and it was moving and everything?"

"Definitely, definitely fingers and fingerprints and toes and a face and mouth and-"

"Then it's about ten weeks total. Your sibling is growing five times faster than it's supposed to." Clark sat down on her front hall floor hard enough to make one of the boards crack. She was kneeling beside him in an instant, frowning back at him. "Clark?"

He felt sick. Whatever was growing inside his mother, the ship had done it. What if it wasn't even human? It wasn't that he was xenophobic, but he was scared his mom wasn't made for this. What if it was some sick experiment his ship was running on her? What if she didn't survive?

"I...it's aging five times faster." He put all his other worries aside and focused on the math. "Jesus, Chlo, she's a fourth of the way there. She'll be ready to deliver if she even goes to full term in six weeks. She'll be noticeable in maybe two or three tops!"

"Your family's good at hiding things," Chloe countered. "We'll figure this out."

"God, what if it kills her or really _is_some weird hybrid parasite or I don't know what. This fast development for the fetus can't be good for her. We already know it's screwing with her blood pressure."

"Yes, but we can't send her to a doctor, not even Helen, and we don't know anything about your ship."

"Why not Helen?" he asked. He would never go back to her if he could help it and didn't want his mom under more of her scrutiny but he was curious as to why Chloe felt the same way.

"Because I saw the way you lied to your father, badly even. I bet your mom would have noticed it too if she weren't so woozy. She can't be trusted, can she?"

"I hope she can, but she wasn't terribly nice when I visited her at the hospital before I saw you. It's why I didn't bring her to the farm instead," he hedged. Nice wasn't the word for it. Downright predatory was.

"Oh Clark, what did your dad do?"

"I dunno but we can't go to Helen and I know nothing about my ship or what it could have done to mom. We need to go to someone a lot smarter than I am, at least about my own people."

"So you're saying we need a 'Planet of the Clarks' expert?"

He nodded and shook his head at her phrase. "We're going to New York."

"It's midnight there."

"Oh, he'll want to see me. He's been waiting thirty years for it.


	8. Chapter 8

They were standing on the street corner outside the New York Planetarium. It was past midnight in the city, as if that meant much. It hadn't gotten its reputation as the city that never slept for no reason after all. Clark set Chloe down and she blinked around, disoriented.

"God that's amazing."

"See and this is what I mean. You're really going to give me a complex. It's just what I do."

"And it's so fast! We were just at my house and the next thing I know we're standing here and it's so cool."

Despite everything, Clark grinned just a little. It warmed him that his best friend thought he was cool. Chloe had taken the spaceship thing a million times better than Pete and everything that had come with the Clark Kent package, including a miracle little sibling who was apparently growing ridiculously fast. Thinking about it made him nauseated. If anything happened to his mother because of his stupid ship...

"Clark?" Chloe asked, touching his arm. "Look I know I suggested this but I thought we'd go in in daylight, with a plan and a cover story and not show up at his office at midnight! He might not even be there. Did you think about that?"

Clark squinted at the top floor of the planetarium, concentrating until the layers of concrete and steel melted away. In the deepest corner of the research archive sat a man speaking commands slowly to a computer screen. It was technology that Clark didn't even realize existed but since Dr. Swann was a computer genius among other things, it didn't surprise Clark that he had access to things that regular people never had. Besides, Dr. Swann was a billionaire with guadraplegia. He'd want to be able to keep up his work and was the type of man who would be able to make sure he could.

Shaking his head, clearing his vision back to normal, Clark looked back at Chloe. "He's the one in the wheelchair, right?"

"Yeah, I showed you a few of his images over the years at the loft."

He nodded. "Yeah, he's there. He's working alone in the archives right now."

"That X-ray thing comes in handy for more than just gazing at the locker room, huh?" Chloe chirped.

He blushed. Sometimes he did have his attention wander warming the bench for Phys Ed. (he wasn't allowed to do anything that was a contact based sport). He was still fifteen. "I don't...it's not like that."

"No worries. Knowing you, you probably only watch for the PG stuff and when it gets more intense than a Disney movie, you look away."

Clark sighed. "The first time I got it. I swear I couldn't control it. That's when I saw more than I really should have."

"Convenient non-control," she muttered. "Look, kidding aside, my point is still the same. This is scary for all of us. I know you're worried for your mother. I get that. I remember when my mom had lung cancer and was in the hospital. It was horrible. However, you have to think what's best for your whole family."

"You were the one selling me on Swann in the first place and your mom what?"

Chloe shook her head. "Cancer. My mom got it officially cause of smoking too much but, frankly, the incidences of cancer among Lowell County residents and people exposed directly to the shower are insane. I wouldn't be shocked if I got mutation and she got cancer in the car accident we had here."

"I'm sorry."

"I know. I'm just saying that I know what it's like to be scared and I'm all for going to see Dr. Swann when it's not suspicious as all Hell, when we do it smartly and with a good strategy in place, you know?"

"Yeah, that would be a good idea and..." he said, grabbing her by the arm and speeding them both into Swann's office. He could do the math. His younger sibling was growing at an exponential rate. He wasn't gonna have his mom suffer for his secret, not ever.

"Clark!" she shouted, once she realized what he'd done. It amused him that she slapped him, even knowing he was invulnerable. "You moron!"

"We'll get this done faster," he countered.

"You're an idiot!"

"Excuse me," a measured voice said.

Clark could hear the droning of the machines that helped the doctor breathe. Clark had read the Time article profiling him from back at his first Nobel win. Dr. Swann had been a graduate student at MIT and not even a full doctor yet when he'd won the prize for physics. It boggled. He'd also been perfectly healthy. Clark had meant to ask Chloe what had happened, but it had been lost in research mode. Now, he couldn't help but be a little curious.

Chloe blushed and looked between him and the doctor. "I can explain."

Swann smiled broadly. "I imagine that you could try. I confess," he said, turning to look at Clark, "that I have spent decades searching for you, _Kal-El _. I did not expect you to come and find me."

"Huh?"

"Prosaic," Dr. Swann replied, again in measured monotone.

Chloe frowned. "Decades? Clark's fifteen and I could be who you are looking for."

Dr. Swann considered that. "I don't deny the possibility of other visitors. I've lived my life believing in the possibilities and not making quick conclusions. I only meant that there was only one message and it's for_Kal-El _."

"I..."

Dr. Swann waited for his machine to take a breath for him. "Clark is it? I promise that no harm will come to you from me."

"I'm betting on that," Clark replied, his heart racing. Maybe this wasn't the best idea he'd ever had. "But, uh, just so you know, you wouldn't want to mess with me," he said, looking at a stack of newspapers from last week and setting them on fire. He waited three beats for effect before rushing around to snuff it out with his hands.

Chloe's eyes were huge. "Holy crap! Do you have any other abilities you're holding out on?"

"Ah, we'll get to that eventually," Clark countered. "There are a lot."

Dr. Swann, for his part, had watched the tableau impassively. "I don't respond to threats and, frankly, you're still a child, as I knew you would be. Your blustering doesn't make me scared but it does make me slightly less inclined to deal with you."

Chloe smirked. "Clark's who you've been waiting for since the 1970s, he could burn down the whole city and you'd schedule a meeting."

"Uh, not that I would."

"But, you know you would meet with him no matter what, doctor," Chloe finished.

Dr. Swann couldn't nod but he did wink. "I admit that but I am disappointed at the thuggish aspect of our interaction. _Kal-El _, the middle of the night? Setting fires? That doesn't seem very polite."

Clark blushed. Why he felt bad about any of this was beyond him but Dr. Swann seemed so noble and had such an air of authority that he couldn't help but feel guilty. "I'm nervous and now I'm really confused cause I don't even know why you keep calling me that."

"That's your name."

Clark and Chloe were seated at a small conference table at the far end of the archives, one set up in front of a large computerized screen. Going across the screen on repeat was a message that had been sent out with his ship when he'd been sent away that was playing on repeat. Clark couldn't read it, but Swann, who had picked up the signal with his own satellite several years after making full time faculty at Columbia, was an expert in it.

_This is Kal-El of Krypton, our infant son, our last hope. Please protect him and deliver him from evil. We will be with you Kal-El for all the days of your life. _

Repeat.

"You got this message in the seventies?"

"1978, actually," Swann clarified. "Forgive me for not offering beverages or a snack. My staff is gone for the night and I'm not the best waiter."

"Oh!" Clark replied, blushing redder. "I...do you want something?"

Swann chuckled. "It's a joke, _Kal-El _."

"Oh, but if you were thirsty or something. Jeez, mom would be so mad at me."

The doctor looked to Chloe. "He really is this genuine, isn't he?"

She nodded. "It's almost Mayberry," she admitted. "But I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around any of this. This message is way older than Clark is."

"Technically," Clark said, blushing. "It's really not. See, if you actually sat down and thought about it from a theory of relativity perspective, then I had to be traveling at so much faster than the speed of light or via a wormhole, one or the other to get here. Basically-"

Chloe frowned. "We haven't had physics yet and chemistry is kicking my ass."

"Chloe, Clark's ship traveled fast enough for thousands of years to pass from the time he left Krypton to the time he crashed during the meteor shower. It also means, of course, that his planet has been gone just as long."

"Yeah, there is that," Clark said morosely, looking at the projection for where Krypton should have been. He was hurt but not surprised. He'd known, deep down, that it was true after Kyla Willowbrook had shown him the wolf's head constellation. The eye that was the Naman's homeworld-his home planet-had blinked out long ago. He loved astronomy or had, despite himself. He knew how long it took a star to snuff out from a point in space.

"No, okay, so I know you're this supergenius. I get that."

"Thank you."

"You know what I mean but Clark's right here! He's fifteen not like fifty thousand and you can't seriously be telling me there's no planet!"

Swann sighed and turned to him, his voice low. "Kal-El, I am truly sorry, but as far as I can tell, the planet from which this message originated, the entire solar system actually, no longer exists. I don't know what happened, if it was war or a star going nova or something humans can't fathom, but your planet doesn't exist anymore."

"I knew."

Chloe blinked. "Why do I feel like I came to play a game of chess drunk? I don't understand anything."

Swann swallowed. "Did you always know, Kal-El?"

"It's Clark, and I recently figured it out about where I'm from, technically from a researcher at Kansas A and M."

"Willowbrook," Chloe clarified.

He nodded. "But did you mean me and physics and space? That, uh, was natural. I always liked it and then dad got me a telescope when I turned four and I was reading journals by the time I was six. I was more into astronomy overall than experimental physics. I didn't know much about you until Chloe brought up the idea."

"I'm not offended. Amazing. Maybe you knew on an instinctual level."

"No, I promise you when my parents told me eighteen months ago it was a complete mindfuck. But I used to like space until then."

"Now, Kal-El?"

"I consider it cold and empty," he replied, relaxing when Chloe took his hand. "But just because what you and Dr. Willowbrook told me matches as far as Krypton is concerned, it doesn't mean no one else survived. To think that what could have been billions of people ended up being just me is pretty ridiculous. Someone else had to have gotten out. I mean, Dr. Willowbrook says that the Kawatchee have legends about others like me having been here before and I know that Lex Luthor has a linguist on retainer who swears some of the same glyphs the Kawatchee have-that are on that screen actually-ended up in Guatemala and Egypt. Someone has to be here but me."

"You're the first one of your kind, I've ever met."

"Of his kind?" Chloe said, frowning. "You've met someone else."

"I'll spare you the Shakespeare quote, Chloe, but I have a friend in the city who is not all that he seems. I'll be giving you his address for when you leave her. He's Martian."

"Those don't exist," Clark said automatically, feeling like an idiot.

"I suppose neither do Kryptonians?" Dr. Swann said slyly. "Kal-El, you do have a point. Just because you're the first I've met, doesn't mean you are the last and only. I do mean to say that after twenty five years of looking for you or any of your people, you're the first one I've met. I'm sorry. I have no idea where you might find other survivors or if others even got here and are hiding as well. I can send you to J'onn J'onz because his people and yours traded with each other, but I can't offer you anything else about your people. There is no secret underground society for them."

Clark swallowed. "The people who sent the message, my..."

"Your birth parents?" Swann asked patiently.

"Yes. I have parents and I love them. You have to understand that."

"I imagine that you do," he replied. "But you still want to know about your other mother and father."

"Did they...are you sure they didn't come to? Are there any other messages at all?"

"After three decades, there are none. Kal-El, I'm very sorry for your loss."

Clark swallowed. Suspecting it and knowing it were two different realities. He was alone. "I appreciate that. But just because mine was the only message. I could look too. You couldn't find me with all your resources until I popped up."

"True," Dr. Swann admitted. "I haven't been as fortunate as I could have been in my research."

Clark stilled. "I'm not research."

"Krypton is and has been to me. You are part of that. Please forgive me if I think of you like an anthropologist who discovers a lost tribe does. I respect and know about your culture but what I know has been from what I've gained from studies like Dr. Walden and Dr. Willowbrook have made, from postulating on the records left behind especially from France and China."

"China?" Chloe asked. "We didn't know about China."

"Shanghai and Paris in France as well," Swann corrected. "Easter Island in the Pacific. Your people were busy here for centuries. I can tell you what they did here, what I posit Krypton must have been like. I can teach you to read your language and how to read the records your race left with ancient people. I can even introduce you to J'onn. Shayera, well, a Thanagarian I'd deal with later. She's awfully rude and xenophobic."

"Thanagarian?" Clark asked. His head was spinning.

"She's another type of immigrant to Earth if you'd rather. She lives in Denver and is very gruff. She wouldn't be the right person to start with. J'onn is far more reasonable and kind."

"Is she evil?" Chloe asked.

"No, as far as I can tell. The immigrants out there are not, and, yes, there are more than humans realize there are. I was always obsessed with Kryptonians until J'onn found me in the early '90s and showed me what I had missed before my face. However, it is your people and their culture who have become my life's work, Kal-El."

"How many 'immigrants?'" Chloe prodded and he saw the reporter in her, perhaps the Lois Lane part even.

"Shayera is one. She was a cop on her world. J'onn is another and he was a bounty hunter."

"I'm not, uh, in law enforcement," Clark said lamely.

"I expect you're in high school wherever you live," Swann countered. "I have no interest in knowing where that is, by the way. I assume you've been around a bit in the last eighteen months, however, if you've had time to follow Dr. Willowbrook and Dr. Walden's research. I'm impressed with how much you've learned already."

It was mostly dumb luck and the fact that Smallville seemed to be its own magnet for the bizarre and extraterrestrial.

"Thank you," Chloe said, before Clark could blow any cover he had left. "Are there others?"

"A few here or there, mostly those without a planet, a few in charge of protecting whole galaxies. They call themselves the Green Lantern Corp and only recently started dealing with this planet. I've been told by J'onn they have their first human member. It's a very recent thing."

"I...so there are other aliens?" Clark asked, still not believing others like him-not exactly like him, like him but like him anyway-were out there.

"Immigrants," Dr. Swann amended. "There is no one anywhere, like you that I know of, Kal-El. You are truly unique."

"Thanks," he said glumly.

"But, you are not the only displaced individual here, no. If that is comforting, I'm glad I can offer that."

"Alright, that's...well that's something," Chloe said, squeezing his hand and looking sadly at him. She hadn't had reason to suspect. She'd never talked with Kyla. Her shock was fresh while his deepest fear confirmed. He knew they'd be talking about this later.

"Chloe, Clark, forgive me for being suspicious, but my interest in SETI is hardly a secret nor is my location and yet here it is almost 2 a.m. and you're here. Again, after twenty-five years, I'm overjoyed, but I'm not stupid."

"You have two awards to prove it!" Chloe riposted.

"Yes, the subtitle to the Nobel reads 'not stupid in any way' on it. Anyway, there's an impetus for action this rash. Clearly your human parents don't know you're here, Kal-El and Chloe, whatever your connection is to all of this, I doubt your parents know where you are either."

"My uncle is busy," she replied curtly. "Clark's my best friend. He recently, well, came out of the extraterrestrial closet to me and I suggested seeing you when he hadn't thought of it himself."

"It's still 2 a.m."

"There was a spore from my planet that was attached to my ship. I don't even know why she went down there to see it, but mom went to where the ship's being kept and she breathed it in. It got her violently ill and she almost died."

"Kent, Martha," Swann supplied. "I monitor hospital records to see when unusual cases show up, anything that might lead back to a Kryptonian. Her case interested me because of how she went into spontaneous remission and because of the instant action by the CDC. They assumed leftover fall out from the shower."

"I..."

Chloe narrowed her eyes. "Hacking medical records is illegal."

"I didn't hack, exactly. My computers are good enough by their nature to bypass firewalls and rudimentary security."

"You are playing semantics. You knew Clark's last name the minute we blurred in here, arguing like Laurel and Hardy."

Dr. Swann looked at her. "Yes, I did. I knew Martha had one son named Clark. I knew he'd been clearly sick with the same thing based on his school records but that he'd not been taken to the hospital. Further records research showed that he'd only ever been to the doctor before for broken ribs and that, while his innoculations were technically in order, his doctor records seemed somewhat altered."

"Mom. She used to clerk for her dad in Metropolis before she left law school. She knew people to fake things for me so I could go to school without it being weird. Now if stuff ever comes up, we claim that we're Christian Scientists and that we don't believe in doctors and it goes against our convictions. I reneged on the freaking rib pain."

"I see. Yes, your records and hers perked my interest but I've had many leads over the years. To be honest, it seemed incredibly stupid for the world's only Kryptonian to be living almost fourteen years later less than five miles from where he landed. It seemed like painting a target on one's back."

"Does it?" Chloe prodded and she'd dropped his hand. There was something dark and angry in her eyes, something he figured The General would have been proud of.

"I understand about the meteor rocks, that they've had a bizarre affect on the populace, about the mutations you've reported on, Miss Sullivan. It's still incredibly stupid to live there, no matter how many people with abilities he can try hiding among."

"Mom and dad didn't want to leave the farm."

"How many hands do you have, Kal-El? How many employees for the farm? I noticed you haven't had any since you were what? Twelve? And Earl Jenkins had to be let go for budget reasons."

"Fuck," Chloe swore. "You ran a full profile on his family the second Martha showed up at Smallville Medical Center. His school records, Torch articles, his family's finances, me and Pete. I'm sure Lana and Lex too. Maybe anyone else he's ever known like Greg Arkin. You've profiled his whole life and just what? Archived it?"

Dr. Swann arched one eyebrow at her coolly. "Do you know how many people I've profiled over the years based on weird medical records. Clark's family seemed more interesting than most because of her illness and his as well as the terribly suspicious adoption. However, I've thought of _hundreds _of subjects over the years. I don't jump on them because after five years of false starts, I learned to temper my enthusiasm. I was merely cataloguing. Based on your Wall of Weird for the infected, you're one to talk."

"You let us sit here and didn't tell us that you knew exactly who we were."

"Kal-El threatened to set my office on fire with me in it. We didn't exactly get off on the right foot."

Clark frowned. "You were saving what you knew about my family. If I turned violent, you were going to threaten mom and dad."

"You didn't turn violent," Swann countered, not really answering the question. "Now the cards are on the table. I know who you are, Clark Kent from Smallville, Kansas, and you know all that I can offer you about Krypton. But I want to know what about the fever made you come. You're well. You don't need a cure."

Chloe shook her head. "I blame myself. All fucking billionaires are alike, always playing games. You have nothing to offer after 1978 and the message from Clark's ship we already know."

"I have things _before _. I have messages from before the planet's fall, just no other hints of survivors. I was going to reveal that in time."

"What?" Clark asked. "There were other things?"

"From several years before the end, before you were sent, akin to SOS's."

"Okay, here's the deal. Threatening you is pointless cause you know enough about Clark and have before we even got here to put him in a petri dish."

"Chlo!"

"It's true," she said. "I don't like that about you. But we need a lot of help and don't have other options. I'm going to give a trade."

"Now I'm intrigued," Dr. Swann replied. "What do you have that I want?"

"Everything. You help us with Clark's problem and you keep your damn mouth shut and I'll give you your life back."

"Excuse me?"

Chloe concentrated and her palm glowed rose. "I'll heal you. I can do it. I'll save your legs and arms, give you everything you haven't had since the skiing accident back in 1984, and you'll help us save Clark's mom."

"If I said I was content as I am?"

"It'd be a lie," she countered. "Doesn't matter. If you don't help us. I'll kill you."


	9. Chapter 9

"Chloe!" Clark said, appalled. "You can't be serious."

She shrugged. "I think you need to reconsider how you deal with us. Like I said, I can give you everything you ever wanted back. I wouldn't test me."

Dr. Swann considered her. "You're one of the people you profile, aren't you? Ironic."

"Just because I'm a mutant," she replied, concentrating and forcing the glow to die out. "It doesn't mean that people shouldn't know how dangerous the meteors are and that a lot of the people like me had bad reactions to them. I'm trying to get the truth out there."

"It still seems rather cold to profile your own kind."

Chloe stiffened at that. "I don't profile all of them, but I report honestly on what happened. That's fair. It's just the bad ones make news far more often."

"You have a rougher edge to you than Kal-El. How do I know you won't just follow through on your threat when I'm done being of use to you."

"Quid pro quo," she replied. "I do believe in a fair trade."

"You have a deal. We'll talk eventually about a cure for me, if that's within your power."

"I assure you that it is."

"What would you like immediately. You talked about the fever but Clark and his mother are both healthy and I see no need to worry further on it."

Clark was still shocked at how Chloe was. He didn't believe she'd kill anyone, but she'd threatened it. Was this everything military rubbing off from her dad? Was it having been hardened in her captivity? God, did he even know her at all."

"Clark," Dr. Swann prodded gently. "I asked you a question."

Clark blinked and looked away from Chloe. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was distracted. What was it again?"

"Why are you really here? I don't think you could be scared of the fever now, as healthy as you are and with someone with Miss Sullivan's talent."

Chloe blushed at that. "That's a way of putting it."

"My mother, I think something is still wrong with her."

"Explain what you mean by 'wrong.'"

He swallowed and looked down at his hands. "She's pregnant."

"That's hardly unusual. That happens every day, as far as I know," the doctor said patiently.

"No, not to my mom. She had a bad miscarriage before she adopted me and it ruined her ability to get pregnant or it was supposed to. I...I don't know how it did it or how it works, but my ship healed her. It healed her so well that she got pregnant."

"Is the baby healthy?" Swann asked, being delicate with his phrasing.

"I don't know. It's only been two weeks since my mom got healed and I have X-ray vision. I saw the baby for myself. It's as developed as a regular _10 week old _. It's aging five times faster than it should and who knows if that rate won't increase. I'm terrified my ship did something. I mean obviously it did but I was referring to I don't know what. A hybrid? Some kind of weird colonization? I don't know what to think but it's definitely not normal and it might hurt her. She is already having blood pressure problems."

"Dr. Swann," Chloe prodded. "We didn't know what to do or where else to go. We didn't know how to deal with this on our own, and we didn't know anyone else who knew more about outer space and other things than you do."

There was a long pause and the only sound lingering in the air was that of the doctor's respirator operating. Eventually he frowned back at Clark. "I never anticipated anything of this sort. Kal-El I know nothing of reproduction on your planet. I certainly received no messages indicating there were thoughts of cross-breeding or of anything else. I don't know what is happening to her."

Clark shrunk in on himself. "This has to be dangerous for her. I'm not going to let her suffer or even die because my ship is screwed up or possibly malevolent. Do you have anything you can offer?"

Swann sighed. "Kal-El, I have an associate who has worked closely with me for years. I trust her with my life, in fact."

"Do you?" Chloe asked.

"Yes, always. Bridget is amazingly gifted and honorable. She's a double Ph.D. in biology and astrophysics. Brilliant."

Chloe's eyes narrowed. "You want Clark to bring his mother here and probably his ship so that you can examine it. So that you can test her to your heart's content."

"I don't want to run experiments, no, but I am out of my depth. I don't understand what's happened to her, have no clue, but Dr. Crosby and I could work on it. I won't endanger Kal-El or his human family. You have to believe me."

"You've not been very honest so far," Clark said. "I know everything started wrong and tense, but, really, I don't think I can bring my mom here to be poked like a guinea pig. It's incredibly unfair to her."

"If you're right and the baby causes eclampsia or something worse, would you ever be able to forgive yourself. Kal-El, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fascinated by how your ship works and by whatever's happened to your human mother, but what other resources do you have? Where else would you go?"

"I don't know, but I'll have to ask her and my dad for permission for them to come here. I know my dad will say know but it's mom's body, so it'll come down to her choice and how much she wants to risk her and the baby. I just...I've never been this honest with anyone in the scientific community before. It terrifies me that me, my mom, and my little sibling could end up behind plexiglass forever. Do you get that?"

"I can only promise my best to help and care for you. I'm giving you J'onn's address in the city. I'll call him and tell him you all are coming. I think your mind will be at ease if you speak with him. He and I have worked side by side for over a decade and I've never betrayed his secret to anyone but you, but I think he'll be most intrigued to see a Kryptonian has made it here, that you survived, Kal-El."

He nodded and swallowed. He couldn't be the last one. He just couldn't. "Give me the address and then I'll go home tomorrow. I need to talk this over with my mother. I can't lose her. I just can't."

After he got the information he needed, Clark sped Chloe to the apartment. He didn't want to think about how much of a risk he'd taken coming clean with Dr. Swann. Saving his mother had to outweigh all costs.

Didn't it?

When they stopped outside the brownstone that J'onn J'onz occupied, Clark stopped before he rung the doorbell. Turning to Chloe he asked, "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"Don't play dumb with me. You threatened to kill him. Can you do that even?"

She shook her head. "I can't unless I get to reflect someone's power back at them. He's hardly got any power in him for that. I can't actively kill anything with my ability, no, not from scratch."

"You still threatened it."

"I did what had to be done. We're serious and we needed him to get how serious we are."

"It was wrong, Chlo, even if you didn't intend to go through with it. It wasn't right."

"Right and wrong's a matter of definition."

He shook his head. "No it's really not. Who are you?"

She snorted and reached for the door bell. "I asked myself that every day." The few minutes delay was layered with awkward silence until a black man in a purple leather coat of all things, answered the door. "Hi," Chloe started, cheerfully enough. "Are you J'onn J'onz? Dr. Swann sent us."

J'onn nodded and considered her. "I am. He just got off the phone with me." Turning to Clark, he bowed his head. "Kal-El, it's wonderful to meet you. I knew your father very well."

"You what?"

J'onn stepped to the side and motioned for them to come in. "Follow me. It's not as auspicious as the New York planetarium, but I have a few couches in my living room and I figure you'd like to sit down after such a run from Kansas, even if it doesn't tire you."

"Uh, yeah, that could work," Clark conceded, following him to a modest sized room with two leather love seats in a shade of maroon, almost deep purple. Detective J'onz certainly had an interesting decorating style.

Chloe took her seat at one sofa and he took it at the other. He didn't feel like sitting next to her right then. She looked sadly back at him, but quickly turned her focus to J'onn. "You said you what?"

"Knew Kal-El's father, Jor-El. I worked with him for a decade, helping him track down criminals from all over the galaxy to banish to the Phantom Zone."

Clark gulped. "My...this Jor-El was a bounty hunter?"

"Not exactly. He was a scientist on the ruling Council of Krypton. It was his duty to help find a solution for the crime rate. As a brilliant physicist, he came up with a way to siphon those found guilty of crimes off to a pocket dimension he could access. It is a harsh wasteland called the Phantom Zone. Banishment there lasts forever."

"So like Australia and England?" Chloe asked.

"Something like that but with less surfing and more competition to stay alive."

"That sounds pretty terrible," Clark added and truly it did. Who would banish people forever to a desert to struggle for survival?

"It was preferable to execution, which your father never believed in. He had no interest in eye for an eye 'justice,' Kal-El."

Clark sighed. "I can't get you to call me 'Clark,' either, I bet."

"Unlikely, I was there for your birth. I was there for your naming ceremony and in the days before you were sent away. You would always be Kal-El to me."

"Oh that distinctly weird," he conceded. "You knew me from before?"

"Well at six months old you were hardly a raconteur," J'onn said dryly. "But, yes, I knew you and your parents. They were good people, have no doubt of that."

"Who worked with bounty hunters to send criminals to a hell dimension. Sounds terrific," he snarked. "I am at the point where more information is just depressing. I suppose you know what happened to my planet then."

"Civil war disrupting the planet's crust and leading to its eventual explosion," J'onn replied. "I never told Virgil about it because, frankly, it relates to a threat who, while contained in the Phantom Zone, I've always feared would escape. I didn't even want to put into Dr. Swann's head the idea of trying to access the Zone."

"Criminal?" Chloe asked. "Who was responsible for all this?"

"A despot named General Zod. He and his most trusted lieutenants were banished to the zone but not before the damage was irreversible. As far as I know, Kal-El, they are all that is left of your people. There is a handful of them and they are psychotic and cruel. Even if I had the ability to travel to the Phantom Zone, you wouldn't like what you found if I took you with me."

"So let me just review," Clark said. "My birth father invented the ultimate prison, whether ethical or not is debatable. My planet's truly gone because of an epic civil war, and the only survivors anyone knows of are trapped in said dimension and are basically like Hitler, Stalin and Zedong all wrapped up together?"

"There may be other survivors, perhaps. But they have never crossed my path, sent out signals, or made themselves known."

"I...is there a spare bedroom for us. I am too tired to go home and we'll have to be up in a few hours to speed back to the farm before dad wakes. He's always up by five-thirty for the cows. If I can just eek out a little sleep, that'd help."

J'onn nodded. "You must be very tired. Emotionally draining things...you are not invulnerable to them, agreed."

With that they were shown to their room, and Clark was glad that for whatever reason, J'onn kept twin beds in there.

Chloe was curled under the covers but still stared at him as he tossed and turned. Sleep wasn't really happening for him tonight. "Clark?"

"Yeah?" he said, turning to his right side to face her. If sleep was a pipe dream, then maybe he could ease his mind another way.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Confused. I just...if we're gonna work together, I don't care what The General taught you or how hard it was to survive at Star Labs, I have a code I work by and threats of murder aren't in it."

She nodded. "You're very idealistic still. I understand and even if I can't actually hurt someone normal, I don't want to lose our team. We're just getting started. If it bothers you, I'll find a better way to get my point across to people. It's just so much military brat in me and what Sam Lane would do. I forget when I'm doing something that would make daddy thrilled, it's too Machiavellian."

"Alright, it's a start. I guess I'm not used to this side of you, how tough you can be. I knew you had a lot of strength, I just didn't think-"

"That I had a coldness to match it. I understand, Clark, I do. I came from a place where it was kill, run, or be hurt. I hide it cause if I don't I'll go back, but underneath, sometimes the rules feel ancillary to me."

He shivered at that, but tried to keep his tone calm and reassuring. "I'm trying to understand that and I appreciate you easing off being a good little soldier when we do our superhero bit."

"Speaking of superheroing and everything else, how are you doing?"

He sighed. "Like I've been hit by a train and can actually feel it. I guess my 'father,'" he said, careful to reinforce everything with air quotes. "Wasn't the man I hoped he could be. Being sent to some horrible desert dimension to fight other criminals to survive, no hope of escape? It seems overly harsh to me. It's not terribly reassuring."

"You're a good guy, Clark."

"I know. I don't intend to design intergalactic holding cells. I only meant that I'm a little disappointed. My biological father seemed cold. My people are all gone except a totalitarian psycho and company. I wanted more from all this. I really wanted someone like me, anywhere. Sometimes, when I was a kid, and my powers would act up-"

"Act up?"

"They changed as I grow. If I got a growth spurt, the strength and speed would go wonky and have to be adjusted. It usually took a week. Days like that, I'd sit as still as I could in the loft, daydreaming about my other parents, wondering if they'd know how to help me more. I dreamed all the time that they were somewhere out there and they realized it was a mistake they'd given me up and would show up and we could all be weird together. Then after I _knew _, I just hoped and prayed that somehow they were hiding out somewhere on Earth still looking for me. I love mom and dad more than anything, but I really wanted to find someone I fit with."

Chloe smiled sadly and lay back on her pillow. "I'm so sorry, Clark. If it makes you feel any better, I'm not going anywhere for probably a very long while. I can't even imagine how lonely you are, but I'm here, okay?"

He sighed and curled back to rest. Somehow, it made him feel better, if only just a little.


	10. Chapter 10

Sneaking back onto the farm was harder than Clark thought.

Somehow, his parents were preternaturally clued in about his whereabouts. Even though he snuck back in at 4:45 a.m. just to make sure that he'd beat it to bed before his dad woke up, he found himself face to face with both his parents when he stopped speeding in his room. His mom was in his bed, half asleep, and his dad was glaring at him from his desk chair.

He was ever so screwed.

"Clark Jerome Kent, where have you been?" his mother demanded. "We were worried sick about you. I went up to the loft to give you a snack option and you weren't there at midnight! You weren't in your room. We called Pete and we couldn't find you anywhere. I can't believe you'd do that to us."

"Son," his dad started, his tone just as stern. "You can't just disappear. When you do that, we think the worst."

Clark shuddered a little. _The Worst _meant a lab somewhere or a government facility. "I know. I'm sorry to do that to you, but I was going to be back I thought before you woke up. I didn't think you'd know."

"That does not make it acceptable," his dad finished. "You may be able to run anywhere you want in a blink but it doesn't mean you should anymore than when you're sixteen you can take the truck anywhere. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir, but I have a really good reason. You see Chloe and I-"

"Were you out with Chloe this late into the morning?" his mom prodded. "You weren't, you know, were you?"

"I...no!" he said, blushing. "Although, after I tell you everything, you're probably going to wish that was all I did."

"Son, what did you do?" his dad asked, his voice less than steady.

Clark began to pace, careful to keep at human speeds. He tended to wear out the floorboards if he went faster. He done that more than once. "I went to New York with Chloe to see Dr. Virgil Swann. I don't know if you've heard of him but he's the chief funder for SETI and he's been searching for signs of alien life for over thirty years. I told him who I was. Well, technically, he had this message from my birth parents so that he was expecting me to show up some day, but same idea."

His mom was blinking back up at him, but said nothing.

His dad was purple. "You did what? Was this Chloe's suggestion. I've never even heard of him. She had to have put that idea in your head."

"Technically she did yes."

"Technically? You mean actually. How could you do that?"

"I didn't have a choice. Something's changed since the fever mom and I had. I had to find someone to help us."

His mom frowned. "Did you get a new ability? Is it more dangerous than the heat vision?"

"No, I didn't. I...mom, you're pregnant. I've seen it."

"No, I'm not. They did blood work at the hospital two weeks ago. I'm not. Besides, you know I can't."

"Yeah, you can. Now you can. The ship healed you so well that you got pregnant. I'm not kidding."

"I...honey, I know you have X-ray vision, but it's only been two weeks. All you'd even see are differentiated cells. Are you sure you even know what you saw? You didn't do that well in biology," his mom said.

"Son, I don't think you saw it right. It's clearly too soon for you to see much obvious at all."

He shook his head and stopped pacing. "See that's where you're wrong. The baby's like an inch long already. Even though it's only been two weeks since, uh, you know," he floundered, not wanting to allude to the conception in front of his parents.

"Yes, we understand that part," his mom said gently. "It can't be an inch long. It's not possible."

"I saw mom. I wasn't wrong. It's like ten weeks along, I know it is. I checked and double checked my old textbook. You don't have morning sickness but you had that weird blood pressure problem. I don't know what's happening but the ship made you able to get pregnant and it's making the baby grow, well, inhumanly fast," he replied, blushing and looking away from them.

"Do you think, if this is true, that the baby is like you?" his dad asked, much quieter than he had been before.

"I don't know. I don't know anything about my people. I mean, maybe we're like cuckoos or something. Maybe this is some weird hybrid thing. Or maybe the baby will be born, slow down growing, and just be normal and a great surprise. I think anything could happen and it's already affecting mom's health. If we don't figure things out from here...whatever this is isn't safe for you, mom. What was I supposed to do?"

"Going to the world's expert on aliens isn't smart, Clark," his mom countered. "I'd rather...I don't want you hurt."

"Then we're even. Dr. Swann, whatever chance we're taking, he offered to help you. He has a biologist who works with him and has for decades named Dr. Bridget Crosby. She's trustworthy."

"Son, so he says. Are you even listening to yourself. Your mom being prodded by some scientist. An alien obsessed scientist knowing who you really are and where to find you. What on Earth?"

"What we're dealing with isn't on Earth and we need more resources than we have. We can't wing this or hope or have a platitude. We need help and he's willing to do that for us. Dad, mom, please, we don't have a choice."

"And you think it's just going to be safe because he promised? Don't be so naive, Clark. After everything with Nixon and Phelan, how could you think that your secret can just be out there like this?"

He sighed and knew he was hedging a bit and shaving the truth. The doctor had been profiling them in secret for two weeks; he'd tried to hide that fact from Clark. Honestly, he wasn't sure whom he could trust but they were over their heads and they all knew it. "I know but what else do you suggest?"

"Maybe you're wrong. Maybe I'm not," his mom said.

"No, you definitely are and at best the baby is growing five times as fast as he should. In eight weeks you'll be ready to pop and I don't know how to even explain that, even in Smallville. If we're lucky it'll stay like this or slow down. There's not guarantee that it's not exponential. I...please do this for me. He already knows about me and I'm not in a lab yet. Mom, he even told me where to find others."

She frowned. "Others?"

"Other aliens," he said, still hating that that word applied to him. "He introduced me to a Martian who had known my birth father. If he kept J'onn's secret for twenty years, why wouldn't he keep mine?"

His father was gaping at him. "You met a Martian last night who told you all about your planet?"

"Krypton. I'm not actually from Mars but they like traded a lot or something. I think that's a side point though."

"Krypton?" his mom asked, also trying to process. "Dr. Swann knew where you're from?"

"Well J'onn too but yes. Dr. Swann did. There was a message that came when my ship was sent out. I mean, this is my shot too. He knows my language, um the old one. He knows about where I came from and studied records from the Kryptonians who have been here before and, believe me, this apparently was a tourist spot going back to ancient Egypt."

"Wow," his dad said.

"Yeah, I know, it blows my mind, but my point is he knows other people sort of like me, who have to hide cause they're not exactly from around here. If someone who worked with my bio-dad trusts him and has a ton to lose if he's exposed, I think it's a shot. I can't let mom get sick or hurt or whatever because my ship is screwy. I just can't. Please."

His parents looked at each other from across the room for a while, having a conversation without words. Finally his mother nodded. "I'll try it, but if he so much as touches you, we're done."

"Deal."

"I don't believe this," Dr. Crosby said, staring still at the ultrasound. "Virgil told me you'd seen this for yourself, Kal-El, but this is unreal. You're sure it's only been two weeks?"

"Two weeks and three days, technically," he admitted. "Oh and you can call me Clark. I doubt you will, but that is always an option."

She nodded. "Virgil referred to you by your birth name. I just assumed that you okay'ed that."

"He's very stubborn," Clark said, still staring at the ultrasound. He'd stared at his mother's stomach the whole plane trip from Smallville to New York. He'd stared at it non-stop whenever she was in the room with him. He knew his eyes were right, but seeing it on the ultrasound made it beyond real. Beside him, his father was gaping.

"I never thought I'd see this again."

"Well no one's seen anything exactly like this," Dr. Crosby admitted. "It's remarkable."

His mom frowned. "Are we okay?"

"Your vitals are excellent, Martha. The baby is moving and its heartbeat is as strong as I'd expect it to be if this were a typical pregnancy. We'll have to do amniocentesis immediately to know more. I know there's a risk, but we need more access to hormone and other information."

"I might miscarry if you do this."

"You might have more problems if you don't. I'd like to do a CVS too. If I could, I want to look at the DNA sequence for your child."

"It's a huge gamble," his dad insisted.

"What do you think is better? Knowing or not knowing, Mr. Kent?"

"Yeah, Chlo. No, I don' think you should come. It's really tense here this week. I mean, it's really fucked up. They brought in my ship via a truck of their own two days ago. We're waiting here for the DNA sequencing to be done today. Mom's had twelve weeks and you can suss out the tiniest of bumps. It's really, really disconcerting. Dad's doing this mix of glowering at Dr. Swann and pacing around the hotel and mom's just no saying much. It's just weird."

"I know, Clark," she said on the other line. "If you need anything let me know. You can always come and get me, alright?"

"Definitely. I, uh, haven't seen J'onn again but I'm rabidly curious about everything. Right now we're focusing on my mom, but it still blows my mind someone here knew my other parents or that, Hell, I finally have a name for what I am. I just...it's overwhelming."

"I hear that too. Take time with it. You can't figure out everything over night. Take care of your mom, okay? She's cool people."

"Will do, Chlo. I'll talk to you after the DNA testing," he said.

"Night!" she said, hanging up before he could reply.

Sighing, Clark started to Dr. Crosby's lab. It was still only six, but in February, it was already pitch black outside. She should be getting the results back today. He wanted to hear them first, before even his parents. He wanted to brace himself for everything. If anything was really wrong with his sibling, he'd always blame himself.

Knocking lightly on her door, Clark entered into the lab. "Dr. Crosby?"

She looked up from a massive stack of papers. "Kal-El, I told you I'd talk to all three of you when I had my results."

"I know you did, but I was wondering if I could curry a little bit of favor."

"You're whom we've looked for. We're not necessarily going to do special favors or bow down to kiss your feet," she replied dryly.

"Then do me a favor. I need to know what my parents are about to here. I need to know what I've done to my sibling."

"As far as I understood it, your ship did it. You saved your mother by activating it. It isn't as if you could foresee the consequences of your actions."

"Well this is a little beyond anything I ever could have thought of. I just...I want her to be okay. I want my sibling to be okay."

Dr. Crosby nodded and put her hair back in an elastic band, making sure it was swept up into a tight bun. "Then, as a favor this once, I'll brace you first. Your mom's blood work is excellent. Her vitals are excellent. I've run a DNA sequencing on her and it's completely normal. Everything for her seems very solid. I'd advise her to do as much resting as possible and I'll be on emergency paging for her. Dr. Swann can provide a jet for one day a week check ups. I know you don't have the money to fly to New York. We understand that."

Clark blushed as he did sometimes thinking about his family's meager means. "Thank you. What about the baby?"

"Kal-El, the baby appears healthy."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, so it won't die?"

"That's premature to tell but the hormone levels, the blood work, it's strong."

"Okay we can deal with that."

"I don't have only good news. Kal-El, the DNA sequencing...I took a sample of your father's blood with his permission, but even if I hadn't, I wouldn't have missed this."

He frowned, "I don't understand."

"The baby's not completely human. Some of the markers, they match your mother. But it's not Jonathan Kent's child."

That was enough to make Clark sit down hard on the floor below him, his brain whirling at a thousand miles an hour. What the hell would they tell his parents? His dad?

Oh Christ what had the ship done?


	11. Chapter 11

"You have to be wrong. There's no one else it could be but dad's. Believe me, my mom...she doesn't sleep around."

Dr. Crosby frowned. "You know that's not what I meant. Your sibling-and I think it's by blood, by the way-your sibling's blood work is unique, unlike anything I've ever seen. I can't identify a quarter of the compounds in the DNA sample. Here, look at the slide."

"I don't understand," he said, leaning over. "What am I supposed to see?"

"Cell walls, like a plant. I...do you process sunlight, Clark?"

"Um, long story short," he started, looking back up at her. "I met another doctor who I talked to and she said the same thing. I'm apparently partially photosynthetic."

"So the baby appears to be also. I don't know how your ship did it; I can't pretend to understand the mechanics of it, but _it's_what impregnated your mother, and you know this, don't you?"

He felt nauseated. The room was spinning around him. "Can I tell them? I think they might take it easier coming from me. I just can't...they don't know you."

"I have the scientific background."

"I know my parents. This is everything they ever wanted and it's turning into a nightmare. My dad's going to be crushed. Give me twenty minutes and then if you want to talk about DNA samples or blood work, then it'd be best."

"I don't envy you, Clark. This is too close to you emotionally," she cautioned.

"That's why I have to do it."

When he walked into his mom's room, she was resting in bed, half paying attention to a cooking show on the food channel. He noticed idly that it was a recipe for pie. Maybe she was still thinking homemakerly farm things to help the time pass. His dad was holding her hand in his and skimming _Sports Illustrated_as well, the magazine splayed on his lap.

He could see just the tiniest rise of a bump on her stomach. She was at about twelve or thirteen weeks or that equivalent. She'd start to show so fast, and he had no idea how to hide that.

"Mom, dad, I talk to Dr. Crosby and we decided that this might be easier coming from me."

His father tightened his grip on his mother's hand and her eyes went wide. "Son, is the baby okay?"

He swallowed and then started picking at his cuticles. "The baby's healthy and that's what matters. Mom's perfectly fine, as far as Dr. Crosby can tell."

"What aren't you telling us?" his mother prodded.

God maybe he should have let Dr. Crosby do this. "I...god, I don't know how to say this."

"Spitting it out helps. You're scaring your mother."

He closed his eyes, bracing for both their reactions. "The baby isn't yours, dad. It's not fully human. Dr. Crosby already can tell it processes sunlight or will the way I do, the way Dr. Bryce already discovered I can."

"What?" his father asked and he was blinking up at Clark furiously as if that would his world make sense.

"The ship got mom pregnant and the baby's half Kryptonian. It's hers but it's not related to you. I think it's related to my biological father, that maybe it was set up as some kind of experiment if the ship was triggered right. God, I'm so sorry."

His father and mother didn't say anything for a very long time. In fact, his mother started crying softly. Finally, his father coughed and Clark looked back at him. "What do we do now?"

"Dr. Crosby can tell you what she thinks is going to happen, how she predicts the baby is going to keep growing. Like I said, if it makes a difference mom's healthy, the baby's healthy, and it's hers."

"But not mine, right?" his dad asked, his voice hollow.

"No, I'm sorry."

Tears still streaming down her cheeks, his mother glanced toward him. "It's not your fault. I'd be dead without the ship. We'll figure this out. We always do."

He wished he believed that.

Clark didn't sleep all night. He hadn't even had the hear to call Chloe and tell her what was happening. He'd go to Smallville tomorrow, after he and his parents sat down with Dr. Swann and Dr. Crosby. He wanted to know what his parents were going to do, what options they had. It was almost 3 weeks into the pregnancy. Everything was progressing incredibly fast.

When he sat down with his mom and dad, her nestled between them as if they could protect her from whatever her body was doing to her, he took her hand. He noticed his dad had done the same thing on the other side of her. He'd take care of her. Whatever was happening with his half-sibling, if she went through with this, he'd do whatever it took-teach the baby if the time came to use their powers, help hide and protect them from prying eyes, love them. Anything to make it easier on his family for the way his ship had taken advantage of them all.

Dr. Swann started speaking with them and it surprised him just marginally that, across from his family at the conference table, J'onn J'onz also sat. It was the doctors and the only person on the planet who'd known Kryptonians-his family no less-intimately.

"Kal-El," he started. "You've talked with Bridget, yes?"

He nodded and was surprised he found a voice to even speak. "She told me about the baby, that it's not human exactly."

"It's like you, at least partially," the doctor continued. "You already know this from the blood you've seen."

"Yeah, definitely. What does that mean?"

J'onn looked toward them and folded his hands in front of him at the table. "I know that your father had talked of contingency plans to make sure the Kryptonian race survived and that you wouldn't be alone. I had no idea that the ship was outfitted as it was. I assume that it would have reacted similarly to any woman whose immune system was compromised, so that she could accept the embryo as it grew."

His mom swallowed hard. "Luck of the draw, then?"

"In a way, Mrs. Kent. I can't believe that Jor-El designed something to violate you like this, to violate anyone."

"Well he did design hell dimensions to punish people," Clark snarked. "Maybe it's not a far stretch to think he'd colonize Earth with or without mom's consent."

"Kal-El," Dr. Swann said with that same steadfast nature he always had. "Being snippy and sarcastic won't change anything. It only exacerbates the situation."

"I just...how could anyone program a ship to..." he trailed off, not wanting to talk about it more, to discuss how like rape it was.

"I am truly surprised. I did not realize Jor-El would ever do this. He was a good man."

"Apparently," Clark replied. "He was a massive, egotistical jerk if he was setting up my ship to do _that_!"

"Clark, son, calm down," his dad said. "Dr. Swann, Dr. Crosby, what do you recommend?"

"Physically, you're finishing the first trimester Martha, as hard as that is to believe," Dr. Crosby said. "There's still time to try getting rid of it. I don't think this pregnancy would be dangerous to either of you, considering how good your vitals are. I don't, but I can't imagine you'd want to keep it either."

His mom frowned and squeezed his hand tightly. That surprised him. "It's mine, isn't it?"

"Yes, I've checked and double checked. The genetic sequence has markers that are clearly yours. It's your child, Martha, despite the rest of its nature," Dr. Crosby confirmed.

"And you think I'll be alright, even if it's sped up?"

J'onn nodded. "You'd not be the first human mother of a part Kryptonian child. Kal-El's people have been here many times. It's safe."

She glanced at Clark and he quirked his head at his mother. "What?"

"If I got rid of the baby, part of that would be like rejecting it because it's Kryptonian, because it's partially like you."

"And I wouldn't be offended considering all the assumptions my ship made. Mom, what do you want."

She sighed and looked back at his father, biting her lip slightly. "This is my last chance to have a child. I can't just...I've never feared or despised what Clark is. He's special and if this baby's special too, then we'll learn to take care of it, the same way we always have with all of Clark's gifts."

"Martha-" his dad started.

She shook her head and kissed his dad's cheek. "I want to do this. It's only seven weeks to go and J'onn says it will be alright. I want this."

His dad forced himself to smile, but Clark could see the strain in the gesture. "Alright, sweetheart, whatever you want."

They spent left the penthouse the next day. His mom was at three weeks officially today, fifteen weeks for her body, and soon it would be obvious to everyone she was with child. They were going to have to hide her and maybe claim adoption later. If his sibling aged five times as fast even after their birth, it was very likely they wouldn't ever be able to reveal them to the world. It would be impossible to explain its growth to even the people of a town as odd as Smallville.

Clark didn't understand.

Maybe his mom just wanted to give birth, maybe the ship had brainwashed her. Hell, he wouldn't be a offended if she had done _that_, the unspeakable, and saved herself this trouble. Carrying a half alien baby-even if was his species sort of-had to be scary for her, despite all her reassurances.

It was why he wanted to talk to Chloe.

She made him feel better.

"Clark? God, you hadn't called! I was scared that the doctors only had bad news for you," she said, ushering him into her kitchen and handing him a soda. "What was the verdict? Is the baby okay? What about your mom?"

"Healthy, very healthy technically."

"Technically?"

"The baby...it's not human exactly."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It's not dad's. The ship did this. I don't even want to think about what Jor-El was thinking but he rigged the ship to impregnate human women, some fucking weird colonization thing."

Chloe shook a little. "Holy crap!"

"I know, fucked up right?"

"And your mom and dad? They're going through with this?"

"Mom wants to have a kid and she insists she doesn't want to offend me by getting it just because the baby's half Kryptonian. I really wouldn't be insulted. The ship raped her, Chlo. It just asserted its mission, will, ugh, whatever on her and changed her life and dad's."

"How's your dad doing? I mean this is a complete clusterfuck."

"You're telling me. He's being really supportive. He and mom were picking out names today. Chris if it's a boy, Karyn if it's a girl."

She blinked. "Huh?"

"We're going back to New York on Wednesday. The Swann Foundation is sending a jet. They'll be able to tell by then because she'll be at about seventeen weeks."

"This is insane."

"I know. I just...dad can't be happy he's been intergalacticly cuckholded. I mean, technically, my bio-dad did this and it's my sibling but I'm furious. How could this happen to mom? She doesn't deserve this."

Chloe sighed and took his hand. "Maybe she's making the best out of a bad situation or maybe she really always wanted you to have a brother or sister. I don't know, but this is her choice to roll with what life gave her. I'm glad your dad is being supportive. I just feel bad for him."

"I feel horrible. Dad deserves a kid too. For a day, he was scared but excited, thinking about having a kid of his own. I can't believe this."

"It's happening," she said quietly.

"I hate my ship for doing this. Genocides and hell dimensions as prisons and intergalactic molestation? What kind of planet was I even from?"

She sighed and squeezed his hand. "J'onn says a good one."

"Yeah and I trust a bounty hunter."

"You have a lot to worry about. You just found out about your origins and that Krypton's gone. Your mom's in a really weird condition. Dr. Bryce is breathing down your neck..."

"What's your point?"

"Maybe it's best if we don't hang out. I'm dragging you down with all my drama and even thinking about figuring out what _The Traveler_is. You don't need that right now."

Clark licked his lips and leaned closer across her kitchen table. "Maybe I do. You're helping me with my problems. I should help you with yours; it's the right thing to do."

"Yeah but not when you have a ton of out space-based problems."

"Chloe, we have to talk."

She frowned. "We are talking."

"About your letter. I heard it all. Do you really love me?"

She gaped back at him and pulled her way quickly. "What?"

"Do you love me? What you wrote was truly beautiful, amazing even. Do you really feel that way, even now that you know all about me?"

"Clark, you were sick and I just got emotional, you know. I thought you were dying."

"I was until you saved me. I...if you're serious we could give this a chance, be more than friends."

She shook her head and stood up. "I can't do that. You love Lana. You've always loved Lana, and just because you and I have bonded a lot in the last few weeks...sharing secrets doesn't make us in love."

"You saved my life."

"You've saved mine a half dozen times," she said, her voice uneven. "Does mean you love me. Go home, Clark, your mom and dad need you. I'll see you tomorrow in school, _as friends_."

"Nothing more?"

"It's what I have to give," she said, turning and heading to the stairs in her foyer.

Clark wondered if his heart breaking was how she'd felt over the last three years. If it was, he was truly sorry. He understood now.


	12. Chapter 12

"Your mom is what?" Pete asked, his eyes wide.

Clark sighed and straddled one of the rolling office chairs in _The Torch _. "The ship impregnated my mom. I'm getting a real sibling, a half-brother or half-sister."

"And so I'm straight, the world's foremost authority on alien life told you this and introduced you to a Martian who knew your dad, Jor-El, on the planet Kryptos?"

"Krypton," Clark corrected offhandedly. "But that's basically the gist of it. That and Dr. Swann's colleague said my mom's pregnancy would be fast but safe. She's at about seventeen weeks in effect. We're being flown at to New York tomorrow to hear about the sex."

"Your mom is pregnant with a baby like you," Pete repeated as if the words were in Sanskrit or something equally foreign to him.

"Well half-Kryptonian. We don't know if it would have my abilities. So far the baby is just growing very fast. I have no idea if it would slow down, stay the same, or get even faster. It's pretty scary. I mean, I could get a sibling who ends up aging so fast they die in like a year or one that turns out more or less normal. I wish mom hadn't done this. I don't think if the baby turns out to age lightening fast and dies it will be good for them. In fact, I'm certain it would crush her and dad both."

"So your dad's just cool with the ship knocking up your mom?"

"_ Impregnating _," Clark corrected. "Knocking up makes mom sound complicit. The ship took advantage of her and it was so wrong. I feel incredibly guilty because it was my idea to use the ship to cure her in the first place. I had no idea it would do this. I get that she probably would have died without the ship, but it doesn't make it any better that this whole thing is happening to her. It's so harsh!"

Pete nodded and leaned back on the sofa. Rubbing at his eyes, he added, "Clark?"

"Huh?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but, uh, you weren't like hatched from an egg or came out green and scaly?"

"I don't know. Did _you _come out scaly?"

"No but I'm-"

"Human, I noticed. No, the baby should be pretty normal. Dr. Crosby insists it looks good; it's just its blood work and DNA that are way off."

"I just can't even imagine this. You're getting a little brother or sister with basically superpowers."

"We don't know this."

"Your mom is about to have an alien baby."

"A half-Kryptonian," Clark corrected again, impatiently. "It sucks but it's not like it's some monster with an exoskeleton. That's just not fair to me, Pete."

"Oh I know that. It's just weird."

"It's totally a violation of my mom, but she's making the best of it. I think she really wants to give birth just once."

"I don't really buy your dad is happy with this."

"He loves kids. He took me home without a thought and since it's part mom and going to be related to me, I think that helps take some of the sting out of it, but, yeah, that double sucks."

"So one more time-your bio-dad Jor-El rigged your spaceship to basically rape any poor woman with a compromised immune system who wandered by under the right like button press or whatever?"

"Yeah."

"Fucked up, man. That's just super fucked up."

Clark nodded and leaned his chin on the chair back. "Believe me. I know. I wish there was something I could do, but I can't undo it, and mom's dead set on this. I don't get how she can be excited about this. She's convinced herself that if she got rid of the baby, that I'd be offended. I want a sibling, sure, but I get if having a half-Kryptonian would freak her out too much."

"Definitely," he replied and Clark tried not to notice him shudder a little. "So what's the plan?"

"I...well my plan is to take care of the baby as best I can. If it grows really fast into having powers, I'll just have to teach them how to control it, channel my inner Jedi master."

"No, I meant the plan to hide your mom until she delivers in like 6 1/2 weeks and the kiddo if they're growing superfast?"

"Mom's going to just stay on the farm. We're on the outskirts of town. By the final week, she'll be in New York, in case she delivers early."

"So ten weeks? That seems a little long if I do the math right."

Clark shrugged. "Growing fast, hormone levels trailing behind. I think she'll be huge by eight weeks and who knows how it'll go from there. Personally, I hope if the hormones are developing slower than the fetus that maybe the baby's growth can slow down. I can't imagine him or her having to hide on the farm forever. I could pass, you know? You can't explain a kid who's an infant one month and in kindergarten by the end of the year. It just doesn't work."

"Ouch. That really sucks."

"The whole thing sucks," he said, sighing again. "I just want the baby to have a normal life. I was scared when I found out mom was pregnant but hopeful the baby might be my dad's, normal you know?"

"Yeah."

"Now it might be even weirder than I am and I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

"Double yeah, but you're not so weird," he hedged. "I mean you don't turn into a swarm of bugs or a wolf. That's a plus."

"Imagine me feeling so lucky. Such a mess."

"So speaking of messes," Pete segued. "What's up with you and Chloe?"

"Huh?"

"Chloe aka Lois Lane aka possibly a secret superhero or meteor freak."

"It's not nice to call people that. She's not a freak."

"Like I said, Jody Melville. It's all you need to know. You've been on the receiving end of some serious violence from them like with Tina or Sean Kelvin. I don't know how you can be so relaxed about everything."

"Would it change things so much? Chloe's been our friend for almost three years and, yes, she pries too much sometimes, but she's never hurt us. I don't think she ever would."

Despite her Machiavellian leanings, Chloe cared a lot about him and Pete and wouldn't threaten or hurt them. She might have to be tempered in interrogations and meeting new sources of information, but she'd never touch them. He could feel it.

Pete narrowed his eyes at Clark, studying him. "She's really infected, isn't she?"

"I didn't say that."

"You're a terrible liar. I can always tell when you're bullshitting. Chloe's a meteor freak."

"She's not."

"The Florence Nightingale act on the bus in Metropolis. Her being so mad at your own investigation. Definitely a freak."

"What am I to you?" Clark asked, feeling as if he'd been stripped bare.

"Huh?"

"If you're scared of people like Jody or angry about Chloe, what do you really think of me. Either you want to use my powers like a toy or a game or you get nervous around me. What do you really think about me, Pete? Hell about my new little brother or sister?"

"You're my best friend, man. We've been best friends since we were five."

"I didn't ask how long we'd been friends."

"I make exceptions for you. I know you're not infected by the meteors so you're not slated to go batshit."

"Wow that's so diplomatic to the infected."

"And about two weeks ago, you'd call them freaks too and mean it. You're my best friend, you'll always be my best friend, and I'm not getting why asking you to take an awesome slam dunk once in a while or grab a hot dog from the Sharks's stadium at lunch is so bad. You do it."

"I just...sometimes I feel like your pet," Clark replied. "I don't want to show off my powers. I don't want to feel like you're just waiting for me to do them like a trained dog."

"I don't. I've almost been killed for you. I stole something from the government for you. If there are some fringe benefits from knowing you then why is that bad?"

Clark couldn't swallow or breathe very well at that thought. "If you can't see why it's creepy and wrong, Pete, then we're not as good friends as you thought. I got to get home. I don't like leaving mom alone after school."

"Clark, man-"

"Nah, see you later." With that, Clark sped home.

"Mom, I can reach that," he said, easily extending his arms over hers to the next to top shelf of the cabinet.

His mom stood back from being on tip toe and shrugged. "I needed the coriander. I'm not an invalid."

"You're like three and a half months pregnant. You don't need to be exerting yourself at all. You never know what could happen."

She sighed and patted the small bump she was cultivating. It was maybe ten pounds, which was weird enough in so few weeks, but it wasn't noticeably per say unless you knew what you were looking at. It just looked like she'd put on some winter weight.

"The doctors and J'onn insist that I'm fine. I think I can cook dinner."

"Sorry, I'm super nervous. I don't know how this is supposed to work, it really scares me."

His mom leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Sweetheart, it's going to work. Everyone is on board saying that it will."

"Why are you keeping the baby, really?"

His mom frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

"I..." he started, twisting the tails of his flannel shirt. "It isn't just about proving you're not scared of my abilities or grossed out by me, is it? Because I'd rather you just do what's safe and sane than worry about offending me. You know that, right?"

"I know, baby, and it is part of it, I admit that. I know this is a crazy gamble, but I lost a child before and this is something I've always wanted. For Pete's sake, it's a way to give you someone like you, a real blood relative when you'll never have one otherwise."

"You and dad are okay though? I know this has to be hurting him."

She smiled and stroked his cheek. "Your dad has been so great about everything." She shook her head. "It was always my fault we couldn't have a child. Now I can have one...I know even you think I'm nuts for doing this, but it feels right."

"And if the ship like brainwashed you-"

"I don't think it did that."

"We have no idea what it can do. It cures the dying and makes women who can't get pregnant pregnant!"

"I know who I am and what I want. I want you to have a sibling, I always did, especially after Ryan. I want to give this family another person to love, and I want to feel what it's like to give birth. Your father couldn't love you more if you were blood family. I didn't ask for this at all, but I know your father will love the baby as fiercely as he does you."

"I hate this."

"Don't. So, tell me more about Chloe."

"Chloe?"

"You haven't called her in the last couple of days. Since you found out about her powers, you two have been off having all sorts of adventures. Even ones to the Big Apple."

"Desperate times, mom."

"I don't care how scared you are of telling me something. Don't run off again. I'd rarely been so scared."

"I promise."

"Now, why hasn't your partner in crime been around?"

"She's upset."

"Still nervous we know?"

"No, when she came over to cure me, she read me this letter about how she loved me."

"Oh Clark, you shot her down, didn't you?"

"No," he said, sprinkling the spice into the stew, saving his mother the small effort. "I said I wanted to try and she didn't believe me. She said she 'just wanted to be friends' and has avoided coming by _The Torch _since Monday afternoon."

"You're ready to date her? After everything with Lana?"

"That was Chloe's reaction. Is it so hard to believe I can love her? She saved my life, mom." His mom frowned and shook her head. "What? Why does no one believe me?"

"Is this like Kyla too? Where you fall so hard because she has an ability?"

"That's not what this is. I've known Chloe for almost three years. We're already best friends. I took her to Spring Formal and would have kissed her if not for the tornado. She's the one who insisted on being 'just good friends' after the storm. I care about her so much."

"Then maybe you can back off and give her time. We've all seen how much you cared about Lana and, frankly, obsessed over her throughout the years. It's not surprising Chloe isn't jumping to be your girlfriend. Not at all."

"Are you doubting me?"

"No, but you're young and she saved your life and she isn't quite normal. I don't want you confusing gratitude and a desire to fit with someone who's more than human for love for Chloe. If you don't actually love her and eventually break it off down the line when you can't deliver on your promises? It will crush her and you won't ever be friends again. Maybe Chloe doesn't want to lose what you already have."

"But we could be something better!"

"Maybe not right now. Now wash up. Dinner will be ready in five minutes."

Clark was sitting in his loft, throwing his favorite baseball at the wall. The motion of throwing and catching relaxed him, helped him think. He had a baby brother. Yesterday, Dr. Crosby had confirmed that it was a boy. In a matter of weeks, Christopher Kent would be coming into the world. It made him smile to see his dad already digging out his old toys, the fire trucks and fake carpentry "tools." His dad was talking of group fishing trips and Sharks games when Chris was old enough, which, for all they knew could be two years from now.

It was pretty cool to have a little brother, like Ryan. It wasn't that a sister couldn't be cool, but he did like doing guy things. He thought it was a little easier for his dad if he could plan group activities for both his sons.

Tossing the ball again, Clark let his thoughts wander. God, just let the baby be normal once it got here. Let the aging slow down and let no one notice his mom had ever been pregnant. They could claim adoption. His mom knew people from her lawyer days in Metropolis who could help them with that. He'd be crushed, though, if all of this was for naught and Chris couldn't leave the farm, had to hide in a way that even he hadn't as a kid.

"I hate this. Why on Earth would the ship do this?"

"I have a question," a familiar voice called out as boots thumped up the stairs.

"Chloe?" he asked, turning his head to look at her. "I thought you weren't really speaking to me."

"No, I wanted to be friends."

"'Wanted?' Why does that sound like past tense."

She shook her head and glared at him as if she had heat vision herself. "You told Pete about me."

"No, I lied for you. Back before I figured everything out, I did talk to Pete about my research, about the bus accident. He pieced everything together for himself, but he confronted me about it on Tuesday and I denied it all I could."

"He didn't believe a word you said. He...god, Clark, the way he looked at me. Did you know he quit _The Torch_today?"

"He'd never do that."

"Oh he did do it. He said he couldn't hang out with someone who thought he treated them like a pet dog and someone who was a ticking time bomb. Jody Melville must have really fucked him up because we're not the same at all. What am I gonna do? Heal him to death?"

"He said that about me too?"

"Yeah, he said you fought and that you insulted him. He doesn't want anything to do with either of us. How could you spoil my secret?"

"You told Pete back last year that my adoption was a sham. I was researching. I didn't know how far the rabbit hole went. I'm really sorry. I had no idea Pete was so scarred, that he was such a freaking bigot."

"Is it true?"

"I didn't tell him anything after I knew, that's definitely true."

"No, I know you mentioned he's not always nice to you. Does he really think of you like a pet?"

"I don't even know anymore," he said, laughing mirthlessly. "I didn't want to be asked to do tricks all the time. If he's mad at you and avoiding you, it's still better than him treating me less than human."

Chloe frowned. "You're not. You're kind of a jerk for telling all your research to Pete when it wasn't your damn business, but you're not heinous or anything. I...snooping I understand. It hurts that Pete can't trust me because of one experience with Jody."

"She did almost kill him and you had your run-ins with the sicker meteor infected-Sean, Justin, Ian. You've just been lucky that I was here to save you."

She laughed. "Wish I'd had the time to tell you or the guts that I can't be frozen, impaled, or crushed to death. It would have meant less chance for you to expose your secret."

"And then you'd still have died, even if you heal. I'm glad I saved you that."

"Sometimes I wish even if I can...even if I am an empath, that I packed more of a wallop. Reflecting stuff back isn't useful when someone hurls you off a bridge."

"No, I guess not."

"Clark, what are we going to do? I don't even know if I can trust you. You dug so hard."

"So have you. I'm so sorry about Pete. I thought we were the three musketeers and always would be. I didn't know how freaked out he was by people with powers. Me, he liked, cause I'm like a vending machine. I didn't realize about Jody and his phobia. I wish to god I'd never told him my suspicions. You didn't deserve the treatment he gave you."

"No I didn't but you also take on too much. You can't be responsible for Pete's reaction with the ideas you bounced off of him. You can't be responsible for some booby trap Jor-El set up in your ship."

"Can't I? My planet. The rocks that changed you, the way you can't fit in in the rest of the world. Christ, my brother isn't going to fit either if he keeps aging so fast. I ruin everything."

"You're so Atlas, Clark. It's not true. You can't save everyone and you can't help rocks that followed you here as a baby or something the ship tricked you into. You just can't. I thought you had a plan to care as best as you could for Chris is it?"

"Yup, Christopher Hiram Kent. Dad and mom are excited, getting toys and the crib out. I'm so glad that dad's trying to make a go of it."

She smiled and sat down on the steamer trunk. "Thank god for small blessings, as Grammy Lane used to say. Whatever Chris is or isn't, you're going to be a great big brother. You were amazing with Ryan."

"I really liked him."

She nodded. "I know. Clark, I am mad about Pete but you didn't even know what you were looking at exactly. Just don't tell anyone else. I know you had to explain to your parents so that I could heal your mom. I know that you slipped with Pete cause you didn't get the danger that I'm in. I do understand that. But I cannot go back to Star Labs. I _won't _."

"I'd never betray you. I'd die before I did that."

"I thought you were in the practically immortal club!"

"Kryptonite, um, the meteor rocks can hurt me."

"Kryptonite, huh? I guess that's as good a name as any."

"Alright then, we've got the rules down. I have two things I need to do though."

"I'm not going on a date with you."

Speaking of Kryptonite, it felt like she'd just stabbed him in the chest. He had been such a dick to her.

"No, not that. I had two offers. I can't do anything for Chris and Mom but be there for both of them. I can't find an answer to change that."

"Okay?"

"I have free time. Come out with me."

"We just established that."

"No, I mean to Edge City. It's far enough from Metropolis not to be suspicious and only thirty miles from Smallville."

"And what are you doing there?"

"Saving people. I don't mean to go all _Wallflowers _on you, but we could be heroes."

She laughed. "You already saved half the people in Smallville."

"And you healed more than just a busload in Metropolis. Help me. We'll get costumes and everything. We can do so much together. You said you had this gift for a reason and I believe that about my powers too. I need to know that there's a real reason for all this Kryptonian bullshit and that I'm not like Jor-El or that Zod guy."

"You're not."

"Then help me not be. Also, I am going to be researching _The Traveler _, whether you want me to or not. The Teagues aren't ever going to stop searching for 'Lois Lane' until they realize she's not the person they want. We have to find out what and who _The Traveler _is and how to explain to the Teagues they've got the wrong person."

"Clark, I maimed Genevieve for life. She's not going to let that go. What do we do then? Against a freaking witch, more or less. Even if we hog tied _The Traveler _, which we'd never do, she'll want my head on a pike."

"We'll figure this out, but we need that information or else we're stuck and they already killed 'Lois Lane;' I will not let them touch Chloe Sullivan."


	13. Chapter 13

Clark was staring down at the collection of family photos. Most of them were of his dad from out in the attic. He had some of his mom, sure, but apparently Grandma Minnie had been very insistent on documenting the bulk of his dad's life. It made him smile to see the rocket ship and other toys in them, the same toys he'd played with as a child, the ones that Chris would hopefully love. He wanted his parents to be able to do normal things, to take pictures of his brother and enjoy it, to have Chris go to the park or little league.

He wished to god that Chris was his dad's-his real one, not that creep Jor-El's-but that wasn't to be.

"Clark? Hey, what's with the trip down memory lane?" Chloe called and he looked up at her. He gulped. She had black turtle neck on but a short leather jacket as well as fairly tight leather pants along with her Dock Martens.

"Whoa. That's different."

She shrugged. "Dark colors means less attention. The leather is second skin, not too tight, but if some knife took a swipe at me, not so damaging. I don't want to get stabbed if I can avoid it or cut. Just cause I heal, doesn't mean I like doing it if I don't have to."

"I just...so much leather."

She grinned and turned in a pirouette of sorts. "You like then?"

"Chlo!"

"I think it's practical. What are you going out in?"

"Uh, jeans, t-shirt, my new red jacket."

"Yes cause red is so subtle. That jacket? It's really horrible."

He grabbed it from off the couch's arm and held it tightly to his chest. "It was for Christmas and I love it."

"Your sartorial choices leave something to be desired, but since you're faster than a speeding bullet, I guess no one is going to notice you."

"Better than a cat burgular," he countered.

"Uh-huh, and I'm the one with bigger city practice. So, before we make the trip, why all the pictures."

"Just thinking."

"You mean moping. Most of those are of your dad."

He nodded and stood up, sliding the jacket on over his shoulders. "I'm _thinking_. This whole thing makes me feel like crap. My ship, my apparently molester bio-dad, my brother. I want so much for dad."

"Maybe you just need to give him space?" She suggested. "I think that he needs some time to digest everything. He's really trying. He just...it's hard that you have maybe five weeks, maybe not. I think if he had months to adjust-"

"To my mom and her being cosmically conceiving?"

"Uh, that. It might go better?"

"Maybe. I guess I'll never stop feeling guilty. I never stopped feeling bad about the meteor rocks."

Chloe sighed and patted his shoulder. "Like I said, you're so Atlas. Your family will get through this and it's going to grow and love Chris like it loves you. So, Superboy-"

"Oh Chlo, that's horrible! Why can't we just use our names?"

"Secrecy sake," she said, pointing to herself. "Nightingale and Superboy. That's the code words. If you we do this as adults, we'll talk on upgrading you to 'Superman.'"

"That's worse. It sounds so egotistical!"

She shrugged. "If you got it, flaunt it. So Superboy. Pick me up and take me along for the ride."

He did as she obliged, holding her as if he were going to take her over the threshold, holding her as he had when she was high on the parasite infection. It made his eyes itch and other things happen.

"Clark?"

"Going."

And they were off to Edge City.

"So, you're the expert," Clark said, walking in step with her. "How exactly does this work?"

She blinked up at him. "What do you mean? You've been saving Smallville for like at least since Sean Kelvin, probably Jeremy Creek."

"Yeah, basically, but meteor mutants, the bad ones-"

"It's okay. Psychosis happens."

"Well, anyway, they're really showy. Weird things start happening at school or dead bodies show up or banks get robbed by phasing robbers. I tend to react to things. I'm not usually out at night just looking for regular criminals."

"I figure stopping a mugging or a drug deal or whatever has to be easier than fighting off Tina Greer or dealing with two Ian Randels."

"I dunno. It seems so big city. I don't get hurt by bullets but muggings and other things," he said, blushing at the thought of trying to stop sexual assaults.

She nodded. "It's Edge City. It's not as big as Metropolis or as corrupt as Gotham, but if you're gonna hero outside of meteor mutants making themselves known at home, you have to get used to the nitty and the gritty."

"How long did you patrol Metropolis?"

"Not like you think. It's not like I'd go to hospitals and heal the sick or something. I'd go out at night around the base when I could sneak out and if I found someone injured, I'd go from there. I eventually convinced people under dad's orders to teach me hand to hand, just enough to have some defense for myself. They did it cause no one wanted me to tell daddy they weren't cooperating."

"Blackmailing a bit?"

"They did teach me what I needed. I'm not a ninja though."

"I didn't expect that."

"Just a purple belt. I mostly rely on the physics of my power. You had that experience."

"Yeah, if you use that on me again...it packs a wallop."

She grinned. "Still, I had lines. I didn't break into ICUs or like nursing homes. Sometimes it's hard to tell when I should save someone and I shouldn't. Like is it just there time on the cosmic books and I'm fucking it up. I basically am working on changing fate."

"Feeling's mutual. I don't even know sometimes how to save everybody."

"As someone who still wished she could have done more on that damn bus, I can tell you that you can't save everyone."

"Yes, but I should," he said. "Now, dark back alleys sound like a good place to start, let's get to work."

Chloe was sleeping, curled up on his sofa. Clark wasn't tired, he couldn't tire from exertion with human criminals, but he was feeling that weird release of whatever he had that approximated adrenaline. It had been pumping through him all of patrol and now it was abating, leaving his muscles feeling lose and leaving him yawning just a little. Still, he was this odd mixed of jazzed and relaxed, of springing energy and a desire to cuddle up with Chloe on his loft sofa.

He settled for sitting on the arm of it and stroking her hair a little. She had been amazing. They'd started in the club district and managed to stop two assaults, a mugging, and even a drug deal, detaining the dealer long enough for the cops to arrive. He thought the first time when they'd pulled the man off his victim during the assault that Chloe would get hurt, that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him for all her experience.

Instead, she'd impressed him with flipping the man over her shoulder with the right leverage and waiting until Clark could bend pipes around him to keep him from running. It had been more amazing watching he go hand to hand with the drug dealer and the way her power shone gold as she reflected him back blow for blow. Dressed in the leather and going at it with all her ability, she really did remind him of a real superhero.

His best friend was basically an _X-man_, awesome.

"Clark? What time is it?"

"About four. Are you sure your Uncle Gabe is cool with this?"

"I explained I was over at The Talon, doing the sleepover thing with Lana. He believed I was her late night tutor for history."

"Do you lie a lot?"

"I haven't patrolled a city in a long time to be honest. I try and help people around Smallville, reactively," she said, winking at him. "But after Star Labs...it's been hard to use my gifts. It scares me, but if you're here to back me up, I don't think I run the same risk of getting taken."

"I'm your security blanket?" he asked, amused.

She patted his hand. "More like the bodyguard, but I think we make a great team, Superboy. I can't wait to do it on Monday. I can't be out every night, but we can figure out a schedule that won't scared Uncle Gabe, okay?"

"Whatever you want. This was an amazing night. I really liked it."

She yawned and closed her eyes again. "You still need a better costume."

He couldn't see himself in black leather anything, but, as he picked her up to speed her home before her uncle could notice anything weirder than a Talon sleepover, he considered it. Maybe he needed a trench coat to update the look instead.

Or maybe that was douchey.

"You were out last night," his mom said. "I know you weren't in your room."

He frowned and eyed his mother. Chris was already at nineteen weeks this Saturday. It was so insane. The bump on her middle was noticeable now and she'd stopped going into town out of necessity.

"I-"

"Don't lie. I didn't tell your father yet because he's under a lot of stress."

"He is?"

"He's trying but this is a very hard situation and I don't want to worry him more than I have to. Where were you?"

Clark sighed but continued to pick at his waffle. "Chloe and I went to Edge City and not the way you'd think. We're patrolling. I...we saved a lot of people last night."

"Clark! What if people noticed you?"

"What if I hadn't and girls had gotten raped or a guy shot in a mugging. We're a good team and it's the right thing to do."

"You're both still sophomores. This is what police are for. You're not cops. This makes you vigilantes and with both your powers, you could hurt someone pretty badly."

"I liked what we did an awful lot, mom."

"Was this Chloe's idea, sweetheart?"

"No, it was mine. We have these abilities, both of us, there has to be a reason for it more than some rocks that mutated her and my birth place. I want to help and I've gotten experience here. There's nothing as intimidating in Edge City as meteor mutants who _do_hurt me sometimes. We're a great team."

His mom sighed and stroked her stomach. "We need you to be responsible, depending on how fast your brother finishes growing, he could be here in a month, maybe a little more. He needs to see someone use powers responsibly and not slink off in the middle of the night without telling us."

"But-"

"I was getting there. However, you do good things. Granville isn't far from Smallville and it has about a hundred thousand people. Smallville is bigger than you think. Edge City is too big, several million, and too far from here."

"It's like fortyish miles!"

"You want to be heroes, you do it in Smallville and Granville until you graduate and then we'll talk what you do in college. You'll be in every night by twelve-thirty and you take cell phones. If you get into trouble, you will call us. Is that understood?"

"You'll let us keep doing this? What about dad?"

"I'll talk to him. I want you not to sneak out but I want you to set an example for Chris and this is a good one. I don't want you to feel like you have to save people but you have already for years and you're so amazing, baby. I think we can make a compromise, alright?"

He nodded, "Well there's crime in Granville too, I'm sure. There's crime everywhere, actually."

"Fact of life," sha agreed, looking back at him.

"What?"

"How does he look?"

Clark squinted and activated his X-ray vision. "Big. I can't believe any of this."

"Me neither."

"But someone even a little like me...I can admit that makes me smile just a little."

She kissed his forehead. "There's no one like you. You're unique and I'm not talking about your powers or being full Kryptonian. You're a good kid, baby."

"Thanks mom," he said, finishing his waffle. "I'm gonna head over to Pete's. We had this fight and I wanted to make it up to him."

"What did you fight about?"

"Guy stuff," he hedged. "Is this okay?"

"Be back for lunch, alright?"

He nodded and sped off to Pete's.

"Oh so he's not home Judge Ross?" he asked, frowning at Pete's mom. "It's only 8:30; I figured he'd be hanging out with his brothers."

She frowned and leaned against her front door's frame. "He went to Smallville Medical Center. He said he was volunteering and that he had someone he had to talk to immediately. That's the best I can tell you."

Clark felt his stomach flip-flop. "He went to the hospital?"

"Yeah, if you're going to help him volunteer, remind him it's pot roast for dinner, Clark."

"I...I will," he promised as she shut the door.


	14. Chapter 14

Clark found Pete in the cafeteria of the hospital, his spoon buried deep in lime Jell-O. He still hoped that this wasn't what he thought it was, that Pete had discovered some deep love of volunteering, but Clark wasn't a good liar, even to himself.

"Isn't it a little early on the weekend to be enjoying gelatin?"

Pete glared back up at him and pushed his dish away from his place. "I don't owe you anything. I thought you made it quite clear that we weren't friends. That you don't like people who treat you 'like a pet.'"

Instinctively, Clark looked over his shoulder. Pete hadn't been loud, but, still, it wouldn't be good for him if even more people knew he wasn't like everyone else or even like the meteor mutated set. "I don't and sometimes things between us weren't great and some of that was my fault because I should have been more honest when you were doing things that made me feel uncomfortable and, instead, I just tried to ignore it."

"How noble."

"What are you really doing here? You've never volunteered outside of the forced hours school makes us do and you know it. So what are you actually here for?"

"Maybe I'm thinking of getting serious about a career."

"You like politics and law, like your mom. You've never given a shit about medicine."

"Maybe there's a doctor here I've thought about talking to."

It took everything Clark had to resist slamming his fist through the table. "This isn't a game. Do you get that? You tell the wrong person about me and my life? My parent's lives, Chris's? They're all done. If I'm lucky I get to be the paparrazzi hounded story of the century, if I'm not, I get to be cut into little pieces and Chris with me."

Pete snorted. "After being friends since we were three, you'd think that I'd sell you out that fast?"

"I hope not but I don't know. Do you realize that the wrong person learning about me and I'll _wish _I were dead?"

"I have been keeping your secret for six months and I'm not an idiot."

"You were here to speak with Dr. Bryce. I know you were."

"And as far as I've heard, she knows more than she should anyway, but, no, I didn't have you on my mind. I don't think about my pets much."

"God, I shouldn't...it came out badly phrased."

"But you think that. You think I don't see you as human."

"Can you see me as human?"

Pete didn't say anything for a while, just stirred the mass of green slop. "You're not."

Clark nodded and tried to ignore the flare of pain in his chest. "I wasn't born here, no. I can do things I didn't ever ask for, yeah. I'm human where it matters."

"Maybe," Pete conceded. "But you're not just any other guy. You can do basically anything you want, be anything you want."

"Not the thing I want most."

"Man, why settle for ordinary? _I'd _kill to be able to do a fraction of what you do. You act like it's some curse, what the fuck man?"

"Where have you even been since Dr. Hamilton tried to infect you with the Jitters? Really? You think any of this is fun?" Clark hissed. "I have to lie to everyone, all the time. I have to try and stay one step ahead of 'doctors' like Hamilton and sociopaths like Lionel Luthor. I can't be with the girl I thought I loved because I'm not like her and since her parents died in the shower, it's not like she's gonna let bygones be bygones and in the last few weeks I find out that not only am I an...you know...but there aren't any others like me in the whole freaking universe. Oh and my ship raped my mom. Yeah this is real fun."

"You can do anything," Pete said, like it was the cure all for his life.

"I can't do anything. Yeah, I'm real strong and fast and have heat vision, great. It doesn't mean I'm invulnerable if people find out about the Green K; it doesn't mean the whole world doesn't scare the shit out of me. I can do the math. People at large found out about me or Chris and we'd be toast."

"I suppose I could point out that who cares? You could-"

"What? Go King Kong on anyone who came for me. No, I don't know how you can have been in the thick of this for months and not get how trapped I really am."

"You're just not taking advantage of what it could be."

"Well since I don't want Uncle Sam to cut me into a hundred tiny pieces, I think caution's a good thing."

Pete shrugged and took a bite of his green slush. "I wasn't here to turn you and Chris in to Dr. Bryce. She knows more about you than I do anyway since your dad was dumb enough to give her your blood work."

"Yeah not the best decision."

"Even if you're a dick, I wasn't gonna turn anyone onto you."

Clark took in a deep breath, exhaling it slowly. "You were going to tell Dr. Bryce about Chloe, weren't you? What asshole purpose would that even serve?"

"I didn't name names," Pete replied. "I just told her that if I were her, I'd be worried about people trying to break into the ICU on a misguided idea that they could help in a very_Smallvillian _way."

"This isn't a game. Did you tell her about Chloe or not?"

"You mean Lois Lane? Not in so many words, just let her know there was a meta with a messiah complex out there who wasn't you and to be wary."

"Not every mutant is going to end up like Jody or like Tina Greer. Do you even understand that?"

"Keep telling yourself that. They're defective and they're killers. It's only a matter of time before _Lois _turns into one of them. You can save people from a lot of things, Clark, but you can't save her from that." Pete sighed and finished the remains of his Jell-O. "Is it ironic?"

"I don't know what your talking about except that you've been playing with Chloe's life out of some misplaced rage at Jody Melville."

"Then pay attention. I have. I noticed lately that you could give two shits about Lana. You're in love with Chloe...Lois...whoever she is, aren't you?"

"And you can't stand her. What's it to you?"

"End of the day, Clark, her real father is a three star general in the military. What the fuck do you think he'd do to you?"

Clark clenched his hands at his sides as he stood up. "Pete, get some therapy, some help, whatever. Your attitude sucks. Chloe's not like the rest of them and you trying to witch hunt her is sick."

"Or maybe I'm just rounding it off at the pass."

"I was hoping I'd see you again."

If it wouldn't have brought attention to him, Clark would have punched a hole through the wall in the isolated hospital corridor. He was having a terrible day. The last thing he needed was for Helen to press him on his origins and blood work.

"Dr. Bryce, I'm not interested," he said, not bothering to stop or slow down.

"Clark, Pete-"

"I know. Why the Hell do you think I'm here?" He asked, turning around. "You two think my life and everything in it is a game. Fuck you both."

Helen smiled, unfrazzled. "I suppose the mutual respect angle is gone. Clark, I haven't told anyone about your blood work or about your mother."

He blinked. "My mother was sick; she got better."

"No, I mean I was the one assigned to her check out blood work."

"You mean you maneuvered your way into having that job."

"Well that too."

"I can't even," he said, starting to walk again.

"She's pregnant. What is she pregnant with?"

"A baby. Shocker. Sometimes there's nothing to tell."

"There's always something to tell with you. Pete mentioned something about a possible mutant threat to keep my eye on. I assume you don't know anything about that like you don't about your sunlight processing abilities or your coming sibling."

"Pete's an asshole and you're creepy but I hope still have a code of ethics, somewhere."

"I've not told Lex about you."

Clark stiffened. "What about Lionel?"

"Lionel?"

"Don't play dumb. He's the highest bidder in town for weird crap. I suppose even in Smallville that I'm the weirdest."

"Nothing. I just want to understand who you are. I want to know whom it is you know that might be breaking in to play Florence Nightingale on my ward."

"I'm just a guy, Dr. Bryce, and if I could do half of what you and Pete think I can, I wouldn't be drowning so badly. Good day."

"Chlo, I don't want to be the one to tell you this," he said, handing her a large mocha and extra chocolate biscotti as he took his seat at the desk in his loft.

"We have more problems?"

"Pete went to Helen about you. He apparently, for all our sakes, had some slight part of his soul intact. He warned her about a mutant out there with healing abilities who might be screwing around in her hospital. I don't know why he just didn't turn you over wholesale."

She nodded and sipped her drink. "I knew it was too good to last."

"What?"

"You, our friendship, having a life here as just 'Chloe Sullivan.' I knew that I wasn't going to be allowed to keep it. It's my fault for exposing myself but I couldn't let you die."

"Wait, what?"

"I'll tell my uncle right away. Dad has accounts for us set up for moving emergencies. We'll abandon the house and use a new account to just start somewhere else. Maybe even in Canada, change countries this time around."

"I...you can't just run!"

"How long do you really think it'll take Helen to piece together that the mutant is me, if she hasn't already? How long do you think Pete can sit on his anger before he just flips and tells anyone in listening distance that he knows where to find Lois Lane?"

"No, you can't leave."

"Because you think you love me? Clark, it'll pass. You'll find someone else, obviously not a Kryptonian, but you'll find someone you can care about. I can't afford to get attached anyway. I need to be able to run and I'm practiced at it. Uncle Gabe and I can be in Montreal in under forty eight hours."

"You're so detached about this. We're talking about the life you built for three years, about us, and you're just gonna leave it?"

She set down her cup and laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. "I run or I get killed over and over on a loop. You can't even begin to understand that kind of pain. I won't do it again. If I have to run to Timbuktu, I would."

"I love you."

"You love the idea of a girl who's similar to you. You love Chloe Sullivan as a sister, and you don't know shit about Lois Lane."

"I know you're not as tough as you want people to think. I know that some serious shit went down with you and I can't even pretend to understand the horror that the Teagues perpetuated on you, I can't, but you love it here in Smallville. You loved what we did last night in Edge city. You love me."

"I have a crush, Clark. Hate to break it to you, even those baby blues aren't worth getting vivisected for. Deal with it."

He was there then, using his speed against her, before she could bolt on him. Grabbing her shoulders gently, Clark kissed her. She was stiff against him and then relaxed. It was chaste between them, just his lips on hers but he wanted her to understand his position. Pulling back, her stroked her cheek. "I love you, Lois Lane _and _Chloe Sullivan. Do you get that?"

"I can't stay. I can never stay. God, if I could just die, if all I had to worry about was torture til it stopped but it won't stop. It was a fluke the first time that I escaped. It won't be next time; they won't allow it."

He pulled her onto his lap and was glad when she let him. "Then let me protect you."

"You mean in addition to all the stuff that's on your plate? You have so much going on in your family. You have your own secrets to protect, a baby brother. You don't need my bullshit."

"Then think about it this way. Pete tells Dr. Bryce there's a powerful meta with healing capabilities in Smallville. One of Pete's best friends leaves town before the weekend's even over. What does that look like to you, Chloe?"

"Like I was guilty as sin."

"Exactly. You do what I do, what you've done for a while now."

"What's that?" she asked, letting her head come to rest under his chin.

"You hide in plain sight and you help me figure out how to get the Teagues away from you. Now, tell me everything you know about The Traveler and we'll figure out where he or she really is."


	15. Chapter 15

"Chlo, I need you to tell me everything you know and remember about _The Traveler _," Clark said, stretching his legs out on the steamer trunk in front of him. He could see her start to pace and to avoid contact with him. He figured that she didn't want to deal with both her memories and with his scrutiny at the same time. In deference to her, he looked away and stared out the loft window. It gave her space to start.

"I," she started, making a turn, Dco Martens clattering on the wood floor, "Genevieve quizzed me a few times on it. I...the first time I might have been a little dazed."

Clark nodded and forced himself to star at the clouds. "Because of the tests she was supervising?"

Chloe nodded. "I'd just been shot in the head, point blank, and woken up. I was confused as hell because that had never happened to me before and even _I _didn't think I could survive that. To say I was distracted was an understatement."

He turned then, his mouth hanging open. "Excuse me? They what?"

"I told you there were shootings. What did you think that meant?"

"I...I don't know. I mean I figured but the head? Chlo, I can't even imagine what that would feel like. I heal, sure, but I never get pierced to start. What they did to you-"

"They did to _Lois Lane _. It doesn't matter now, Clark. The Teagues' little game has been over for a while and they don't have me. I'm not so stupid that I think they haven't started up again, but maybe the people I was with, maybe Alicia and Bart and some of the others, maybe they went underground too. At least I can hope for that much."

Clark started to stand and she startled. "This isn't about dating or cuddling or any of that. Don't be so skittish. I just...I think when you talk about your head being literally blown off, you might need some support."

She shook her head and started to pace faster. "I can't. It happened. It's not happening now. It's not _going _to happen again. The way I deal with it is I do not think about it and I plan how to stop it from reoccurring."

"And that's not healthy."

"How healthy is it," she countered. "To pretend you're normal?"

Clark rock backed like he'd been slapped by Tina Greer. "Excuse me?"

"I pretend that I was never 'Lois Lane,' torture victim and you pretend that you were never 'Kal-El of Krypton.' It's probably not healthy but it works. If I had to really think about what it meant to be _her _, what it meant to be torn apart for months, then I'd end up like Aunt Moira."

"Like what?"

"Nothing," she said, still pacing. "I shouldn't have made you feel bad, I guess. I know you keep a low profile like I do for a reason and I know that you just found out about 'Kal-El.' It's not like you were going to be taking out an ad for _The Yellow Pages _."

"No, I'm not."

"I just meant, you know what it is to compartmentalize to survive. There's you, the you here on the farm and at school, and then there's the you who apparently was born on another planet and whose bio-dad hung out with Martians. I have to do the same thing, Clark, or I'll go crazy."

"You can't run from what they did forever. You can never go back, obviously. I'll do anything it takes to keep you safe, I promise. At the same time, you can't just turn it off. You have to admit what happened because burying it will drive you just as crazy."

She finally stopped and he expected her to be crying. He'd seen her cry over emotional things before, over them and dating for instance, but this wasn't Chloe looking at him. This was that girl from before, the General's daughter. She only glared back at him, her expression unreadable. "You say that but you didn't live through it. If you ever felt even a fraction of what I had. I lock it away because I have to. Clark, if I didn't I'd be as bad as anyone at Belle Reve."

"I don't believe that."

"Then you're as naive as Lionel or Lex think you are. The point is that the first time Genevieve mentioned _The Traveler _, I wasn't really that focused cause I was still in the process of healing. What I do remember is that she whispered to Edward and the doctors that she thought I was it."

"That's not very helpful."

"She did a few more tests the following month. I'm not going to go into them," she said, and her heart was racing so fast that Clark thought it might explode.

"Chloe?"

She swallowed and forced herself to stand straighter. "I'm not telling you because what's done is done. It won't change a thing, Clark. They were just as invasive and as cruel as the gunshot, if you want to get the idea, and I was just coming out of it when she came to sit down in my cell, that...I've heard the word is Grimoire."

"What is?"

"Well the book. I know you don't believe me, but I still think it was a spell book of some kind. Like I said, semantics. If saying some ritualistic words is how whatever Genevieve is activates her abilities, then it's really no more surreal than you having to concentrate to aim your heat vision or me having to hone in on my own feelings to heal."

"Feelings?"

Chloe paled. "I...nothing."

"The letter you read me? Was that a warm up?"

"That was an attempt at avoiding emotional intimacy. I was trying to get out things I'd always wanted to say."

"Because I was dying?"

She shook her head. "No because, yeah, I can tell what you're thinking. I do need to get a handle on my feelings to heal. For most people, I just tap into sympathy or an urge to help, try and imagine their pain."

"For me?" Clark croaked.

"Do you have to ask?" she asked, bitterly. "I love you and you said _Lana's _name to my face."

"I was unconscious! You have to give me credit here."

"I am. I get it. You don't love me back. You think you do because I have powers-"

"I-"

"And because I saved your life, but that's gratitude. I care about you. We're best friends. I accepted the day your fever broke that I was never going to be more to you. Don't mistake emotions please, and let me finish."

"We're not dropping the subject of 'us' forever. One day, I'm going to make you understand that I love you, Chloe, and not your abilities or because you're a little like me."

"Maybe," she said the same way she blew off freshmen who wanted to add unedited copy last minute to _The Torch _. "Still Genevieve explained to me a little bit as she thumbed threw her book. I think it's not just incantations but a history too, things passed through the generations of her family."

"Alright, following."

"She said that her many-greats grandmother in medieval Paris had been searching for these stones that were supposed to give her ultimate power."

"Right because that doesn't sound insane."

"I've been dead more times than I can count, your spaceship made your mom pregnant, and you're an alien. How insane are we talking?"

Clark sighed. "Witches are much weirder than aliens. I'm just saying."

"Witch, meta, superstition, whatever. She claimed that her family had been searching for three stones of power and that they'd been betrayed by a Count Isobel Theroux in the process. In revenge Gertrude-the ancestor-turned Isobel over to the people and she was burned with her coven at the stake."

"And this has to do with someone with amazing abilities in the 21st century?"

"_ The Traveler _is the rightful owner of the stones. They were left for him or her, someone of great power."

"That's vague if she was capturing everything from empaths to teleporters. Clearly, she's not sure which type of being she's looking for."

"No and she was so convinced it was me and I was just lying," Chloe agreed. "That's when she started torturing me with, we'll call them energy blasts because if I said 'spells,' you'll just go all Scully."

"I might but I can understand if she's some type of mutant with the ability to shoot energy. In my world, yeah, that makes sense. And that's when you realized you could reflect it back and staged your Alcatrazian escape."

"Exactly. I...I've thought a lot about it, actually. I've had three years to almost. When I found out who you really were, where you're from, something did click for me."

Clark frowned. "Me?"

"Well not you-you. That'd be too big a coincidence, farmboy. But what if _The Traveler _means an alien. Say like Martians or Thanagarians or Jupiterians or whoever left the stones for a future mission from the planet, a future explorer to find. That would make it so 'traveler' literally meant someone traveling here from another planet."

Clark arched an eyebrow at her. "So you think that a witch from a long, long line of witches captured you to get some special stones left here over five hundred years ago at least for some aliens? I've got that right, yes?"

"Yes. I know how it sounds but you've seen werewolves, fat-sucking vampires, and freaky identical twins. Why is this so different?"

"There's no tumor or meteor rocks to explain this one. I can buy that other alien civilizations made it here," Clark said, sighing a little that his was one of said alien civilizations. "I can. I can even find it logical they left SOS beacons or something that ancient people mistook for 'stones of power.' I mean, to a Dark Ages person, a toaster would be a miracle from God. It's possible whatever these stones or machines or whatever do is mundane by modern standards. I just am having a very hard time believing witches exist. Kyla wasn't even a real werewolf. She was a mutant. It's completely different than like Sabrina or something from 'Hansel and Gretel.'"

"Or Willow," Chloe added. After he kept staring at her blankly, she rolled her eyes. "From _Buffy _, hello? Have you met me."

"Um, sure, that too. I'll buy that Genevieve has some kind of ability and tons of money and that both make her dangerous and she wants these artifacts. I'm not going to buy ever, though, that she can turn someone into a toad or ride a broomstick."

"Well, I doubt she does those things. Why settle for a toad when you can electrocute the fuck out of them?" she countered. "So, yeah, what I'm saying is that an alien of some sort might be a link to what she's looking for."

"And Dr. Swann said there's at least a dozen species of 'immigrant' on Earth, not counting me," Clark said, rolling his eyes at the euphemism. "You want to get a list from him of the like forty or fifty individuals on this planet who 'traveled' here? It's a place to start, but it could take a while."

She shrugged. "Well, maybe?"

Clark shook his head and, standing up, offered her his hand. "Let's try J'onn. If he's been here a while and he was a galaxy wide bounty hunter, maybe he has a better idea of where to start."

Purple leather squished underneath Clark, who, frankly, was surprised that a Martian was like J'onn. Not that he'd been expecting Marvin and ray guns and 'this means war,' it was just that, well, J'onn was so human. Clark understood how hypocritical that was of him. He just always assumed if he ever did meet another type of alien, that they'd be all stalk eyes and scales or hooves or something. J'onn looked a little like that lawyer from Seinfeld, actually, and his choice of wardrobe was a lot of leather jackets and dark jeans. He was suave. Clark also hadn't expected a Martian to have Oreos to offer them or a collection of Samuel L. Jackson films.

Yeah, definitely hypocritical.

"Kal-El, Chloe, I didn't expect to see you at my door. Is there something I can do for you? Is Martha-"

"She's fine, J'onn," Chloe assured him, picking up an Oreo and biting into it. "We had something else on our minds."

"Like?" he said, taking a seat in a purple leather recliner (and where had he even...did they come custom made that ugly?).

"I...J'onn, what do you know about _The Traveler _?"

"I'm confused. Am I supposed to? Is it like a band or a movie or something?"

Chloe sighed. "So much for that brilliant attempt, Clark."

"No, I asked it wrong. J'onn, I don't want to get into it, but there are people looking for Chloe because of her ability. They think that because she can heal people that she's someone they call _The Traveler _. Some woman named Genevieve Teague wants to find some type of stones or artifacts left for that person."

"I see," J'onn replied.

"Yeah, but the problem is I'm _not _her. I have no idea what a traveler even is. I think it might be...well Clark and I think that it might mean-"

"Traveler from another planet or galaxy, like a euphemism for alien. The Kawatchee called my ancestor, I guess, 'a traveler' from the stars. I think it's not hard to believe that other people over time have called aliens 'travelers' too," Clark added, grabbing four or five Oreos for himself and shrugging when Chloe slapped his hand. "J'onn offered!"

"One or two, Clark. Were you raised in a barn?"

"Technically..."

"You know what I mean; it's rude."

J'onn shook his head. "It's alright, Kal-El, I know you eat a lot for your metabolism. Did you come here because you thought they meant me? I'm the last Martian the way that Kal-El is the last of his kind, but my people did not bother coming to Earth. No offense, Chloe, but they found it rather primitive."

"Gee, none taken," she said.

Clark stared at J'onn. "You're what?"

"Immigrants come to a new land for a reason. You and I are survivors, Kal-El. Some of the others are banished or explorers or escaping persecution, but some are the last as you and I are."

"I...I'm sorry," Clark said, unsure of what the correct response was.

"It was a long time, ago. I've had time to adjust. You've had almost two weeks to grasp the gravity of your situation."

"Tell me about it," Clark replied. "But, no, we were hoping if you were a bounty hunter for Jor-El."

"Your father," he corrected.

"For _Jor-El _," Clark insisted.

"Boys, boys," Chloe said. "The point is, do you have any idea if _any _of the immigrants to Earth might have stones that they are looking for or that they left behind?"

"So that you could trade one of us over to Genevieve for yourself?" J'onn asked in a measured tone.

"No, because I know the Teagues have spent millions looking for them and they're never going to stop until they have them and they think find _The Traveler _is the only way to do that. We need to know who they are because if we don't find and warn them, the Teagues _will _. Trust me. No one deserves to be hurt by them, no one," Chloe said.

"I honestly don't know. I know it's not my people or for me. I know it can't be Shayera or the Lanterns because they've come from people who've never been to Earth before either. Honestly, Kal-El's people have had the most extensive exploration of this planet, but I don't know about anything they've left here. Frankly, what little Kal-El has told me about the Kryptonians' ties to the Kawatchee is news to me. I only assumed in Egypt and Guatemala."

Clark frowned. "Egypt?"

J'onn smiled and took a bite of cookie. "Surely Swann told you?"

"Told me what?" Clark asked, incredibly confused.

"Your ancestors gave humans a boost once or twice."

"Boost?" Clark asked, feeling mildly like a parrot.

Chloe grinned. "Smoking cool. He means you all helped or probably did build the bulk of the pyramids."

"Oh, neat."

Clark sighed and leaned back on the sofa in _The Torch_ office. It had been a week since they'd gone to J'onn's apartment. The Martian was, as they'd asked, going through his contacts within the "immigrant" circle but had not had any luck finding anyone who knew of stones, crystals, or anything left for them on Earth. He still had fifteen more contacts to check up on, but it wasn't looking promising to either Clark or to Chloe.

"Well what if it's another, ugh don't make me say this out loud-"

"Go on," she prodded.

"What if it's another witch? What if _The Traveler _is totally terrestrial but another warlock, witch, or otherwise delusional person."

"You're never going to admit that witches exist are you?"

"Nope, probably not," he replied, cracking his neck. "I'm serious. If J'onn's contact list falls through over the next week, then it has to be someone _from _Earth."

"Yeah and there's only about seven billion of them, assuming _The Traveler _didn't die in the 1500s, perfect. No wonder Genevieve has gone so bonkers looking for them. It's completely impossible, even if you do have a lot of resources."

"Well we're not out of options completely. If it is a 'witch' thing," he said, making air quotes. "Then we just have to start using your Google-fu and my ability to break through vaults and restricted areas to search arcane stuff. We'll come up with a new plan next week, promise."

Chloe nodded and tossed a hot orange Nerf football at him. "So, how's your mom?"

"Mom? She's oddly perky. I'm really worried that part of the ship cuckholding her isn't just about the actual act. I wonder if it screwed with her brain and made her really happy to be carrying a hybrid. Sort of like insurance?"

"That's possible," Chloe conceded. "It's definitely possible. However, maybe your mom just always wanted to have a baby. It's really hard to tell."

"Well I hope when this is over in under three weeks that she'll...I dunno. She's not Stepford. She's just not scared," he said, turning the ball over in his hands.

"Dr. Swann and Dr. Crosby think she's making great progress and that she's healthy, last I heard, and she knows the baby will be like you. I can see why she's not scared-scared. She could be doing the brave front thing too. I know it has to be hard."

"But she's just so excited, getting out my old toys and things. It'd be okay if she were sad or if she hadn't-"

"You're worried about your dad, aren't you?" Chloe prodded.

He nodded and tossed the ball up and caught it as it fell. "He's being super supportive and he's never said a bad word about it, but he's been fixing the fence a lot."

"Fixing?"

"Yeah, that's what happens when he needs a moment. I mean sometimes the fence is broken, but sometimes it's just he needs space. I'm going to talk to him tonight, you know? Mom's going to New York on her own for some blood work and she said we need a guys' night. I think that's actually a really good idea."

Chloe nodded as he sat up and grabbed his backpack. "It'll be okay. I'm sure your dad will love Chris as much as he loves you. He has a soft spot for boys from Krypton."

Clark sighed and stood up. "I gotta go. Lana and I got paired up for a history project and I have to find her. She's been sort of flaky this week and I haven't been able to track her down."

Chloe stiffened and her smile froze on her face. "Wow, partners. That's, wow, that's something."

"Mr. Schmidt's decision. I didn't do it. It wasn't my idea, I swear."

"But it's the best way to rekindle some old fires, you know?" she offered. "It'll be good for both of you."

"I don't want Lana."

She rolled her eyes and ushered him out the door. "Sure you do. I'll talk to you later, Clark. Call me after you talk to your dad."

Clark shook his head as the door slammed in his face. He wanted to knock and beg her to let him back in, but he recognized when Chloe (nee Lois) was being stern on a point. Tightening his grip on his pack, Clark started toward Lana's locker. What confused him, though, was when he saw Lana coming out of a darkened classroom with some guy he'd never seen before trailing behind her. He was dressed in a letterman's jacket, which wasn't unusual, but what was, was the coach's whistle around his neck and the obviously way his clothes were disheveled.


	16. Chapter 16

"Okay, so, the spring training game for the Wolverines has them playing The Gotham Knights at eight. It should be worth a watch even if it doesn't count, you know?" Clark said, sitting down in the old rocker in front of the TV. While his dad was in the fields, Clark had already set out enough chips and dips flavors for _several _Super Bowl parties. It might have been a bit overkill.

As his dad walked into the room and took a long sip of his ice water, he eyed Clark. "Is Pete coming over and is he bringing his four brothers with him?"

Clark stiffened. He'd mentioned to his mom that he and Pete were having problems but not the nature of them. He wasn't sure if his dad knew. Clark didn't want to bring it up, not just because his former friend giving Helen too much information was worrisome, but, frankly, because there wasn't anything to be done about Pete's attitude. His ex-best friend had never been okay with the alien part of Clark's nature. Pete was never going to be okay with it, and, as much as that hurt to admit, Clark thought any type of break from him was best even if he had to keep an eye on whom Pete talked to. It was better it be over now than Clark kept letting him insult him or use him.

Fuck it.

He wasn't going to be anyone's pet and do tricks for them. He deserved more than that, no matter where he'd been born.

But he didn't think his father could understand that exactly. Besides just adding extra stress over Pete and his big mouth, talking about their end would make his parents upset. For a while, it had given him hope that maybe one day he could tell more people, that they'd understand that having been born _Kal-El _didn't define all he was. In some fantasy-driven part of his mind, the same one that imagined being Homecoming King or a star quarterback sometimes, Clark thought about just getting it all out there for everyone. The fantasies were his own and outlandish; he knew that. Of course, that was how day dreams worked. Some days, when he'd been feeling flippant, he'd imagined going on Oprah or Letterman or something, being on a whirlwind press tour and a celebrity of sorts. In these scenarios, people just rolled with who he was as an "immigrant" and he was allowed to be himself in public. No labs or Luthors or anything in between.

They were fun dreams though implausible.

For just a minute, they'd felt somehow possible. If Pete could accept him...

...Except Pete, his oldest and, until Chloe had come along, his _only _friend, couldn't understand him.

He sighed and started in on the cheese curls. Humans would never embrace him. He knew that. He'd always have to hide and be afraid and stay one step ahead of the government and of other things. Pete's betrayal just drove that point home even harder. Lana was mad at him for whatever imagined slight (and she was high maintenance and a pain). Some days he wasn't sure he could trust Lex, most of his deepest instincts said he shouldn't. If Chloe weren't like him...not _like him-like him _but close...he wondered if she'd still be at his side. As selfish as it was, he was glad she was meteor infected, that they could be freaks together.

Otherwise, outside of his parents and possibly J'onn and Drs. Crosby and Swann, he'd be alone in the world. Hell, outside of Chloe, anyone else who knew the real him was over forty.

"Son?"

"Oh sorry, I was just concentrating on the TV."

"Yeah, the national anthem is riveting," his dad replied. "Son, are you alright? I know you're upset about me going to Helen."

Clark sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I was dying. What else could you have done? Mom was sick and I was sick and you thought she could save me. Having a secret is redundant if you're dead."

He nodded. "But I know it's troubling you. Do you think she'll hurt you?"

Clark considered her predatory gaze and her urging about how she could help him understand his powers if they wanted to study more together. "No," he hedged. "She's got Lex voluntarily exploring his healing mutation with her and that's pretty lucrative to her as a doctor if she can harness and synthesize it. I...she's also looking for Chloe."

"She knows about Chloe?"

"No, Pete got pissy about Chloe and told Helen to look out for meteor mutants with Florence Nightingale streaks. She doesn't know it ****is ****Chloe, but she's on red alert for someone out there with curative powers."

"Pete would never-"

Clark shook his head and took a sip of his Coke. "Pete did. He's mad at her. Jody Melville almost murdered him when she had her shot and it messed him up. He hates all meteor mutants and he's angry at Chloe twice over-both for being infected and for lying about it."

His dad frowned. "But if he was going to react that way to her, then it was in her best interest to keep everything as hidden as she has. I just can't imagine how he can be so amazing for you but so mean to her."

"Well, I, aliens aren't meteor mutants. No one like me tried to kill him. I really don't think it's Chloe as a person. I think he's still scared of Jody and it's just now _all _of them irrationally."

"That must be very hard for her."

"She's dealing," he said stiffly. "It's just hard when you have to hide everything about yourself from everyone. I am so selfish because I love that Chloe has powers and she gets hiding to save herself, but that's shitty of me because _I _am the reason she has them and because it's basically ruined her life."

"Losing Pete is not the end of her life, son."

"She has to lie easily as much as I do. Stupid meteors. I wish the shower had never happened."

"I don't."

He smiled sadly back at his father. "I know you and mom don't feel that way, but everyone else in this town-Lex, Lana, Chloe and need I go on-would have been better off if it had never happened."

"You were probably three, best as we could tell. You didn't do anything. You were a child."

"It'll never change how I feel. Chloe's life got shot to Hell because of my stupid planet."

"Then your mom and I will keep reminding you that it's not your fault."

"I know but being a freak sucks."

"Language."

"Being different stinks," Clark corrected. "I wouldn't wish hiding forever on anyone."

His dad didn't say anything for a long time after that, as if he were gathering his thoughts. "Like your brother?"

"Exactly. I...the last thing I wanted was for Chris to be like me. Dad, you have to believe that if I'd known...well we were desperate and I didn't know. If it was a choice between mom dead or this mess, this is still way better."

"Of course. I couldn't live without your mother, neither of us would make it. She's the brains here."

"Definitely," Clark replied, his smile turning genuine. "But you have to believe me I didn't know this would happen."

"Clark, the ship manipulated this. It was waiting for an opportunity to do this. It outmaneuvered us both. You didn't do this to her."

"And to you," Clark countered. "What did I do to you?"

"I don't understand the question."

"I...Chris should be _yours _."

His dad frowned. "Chris is mine."

"I...Jor-El made him by raping mom. You got screwed over in this. You have to raise both his sons and not have one of your own."

It was enough to make his father turn off the TV and stand up. Walking over to his chair, his dad placed his hands on either side of Clark's shoulders and waited for him to look up into his face. "You're my son, Clark. I am going to learn to deal with the idea that you had a name before this one and that we know it now-"

"I like Clark better, believe me."

"I'm not going to make you choose a side."

"Raping machines, ugh," he replied. "You wouldn't have to. From what little I've learned, my culture pretty much makes me wanna puke."

"I...the point is that you are my son. _Chris _is my son, and I love both of you and I always will. I want to be your father. I took you home that day in the cornfield and I never looked back. You and Dr. Crosby explained about Chris and I could care less. He's my son. He's related to you and to your mother. How could he be anything less than perfect?"

"But-"

"It's hard son, yes," his dad said, sitting back down on the couch, giving him a bit of breathing space. "I wish it were different. I wasn't destined to have a biological child but I got something greater."

"Two aliens? Joy."

"Don't put you or Chris down like that. I won't allow it. You're extraordinary, Clark. We didn't even realize how much."

"Because I'm the last full Kryptonian anywhere?"

"No, because you have abilities and you want to help people with them. How many kids your age in Smallville have you fought because they have power and decided to hurt or kill with it, including when Eric Summers got _your _abilities."

"I...a lot."

"Exactly. You've only ever wanted to help people. You're still so very young, son. You're not even sixteen and the things you've done here even if it's not 'related to you' like the tornado. I _know _you're going to do amazing things."

"Because you and mom raised me right."

"Maybe, I hope, but I think we had a lot to work with. Maybe your biological mom at least was a good person, I don't know, but I know you and you're going to be one of the best things that ever happened to this world, son."

"I can't even...I just stop meteor mutants sometimes and a few small town crimes. It's not like I'm Captain America or something."

"Your mom told me about what you and Chloe are doing in Granville and here, about the patrols. You're thinking about it."

"Being a comic book hero?" Clark snorted. "Right. I just wear jeans and a t-shirt. It's not glamorous. I just keep an eye out on back alleys and Chloe and I make sure people don't get raped or beat up or mugged. I...it's not saving the world."

"And it doesn't have to be a grand gesture to matter, especially to the people you've been saving basically every night. It's a lot to take on at fifteen and I think Martha's right and you need to stick to here or Granville and learn how to deal with it in stages. No one's asking you to go to Suicide Slums or The Narrows in Gotham, but I can see what you'd be if you kept up at this in five or ten years. Clark, I promise you, no father has ever been more proud of his son."

He couldn't swallow or speak for a long time after that. He wasn't stupid. _Anyone _could have found him in that field. There was a military base in town and, worse, Lionel and Lex had been wandering not a mile from where he'd crashed. Thought of being raised as a Luthor sent shudders down his back. Lionel was a psychopath who abused Lex non-stop. Someone with _his _powers being manipulated like that from age three would have ruined the world. Someone somewhere had to like aliens and look out for them because he'd been given the two best things that could have ever happened to him-his mom and dad.

"You didn't have to."

"To what, son?"

"Take me in. I break everything. Mom had to cut off all ties with her dad. We're always in trouble or afraid someone will notice me; weird alien stuff happens like now. You could have had it easy if you'd just left me there."

"If it's easy, Clark, then it's not worth doing." Clark smiled as his dad squeezed his forearm. "I love you and you were my son. We saw you there and we knew it. I see your mom growing so much every day, see her sonograms and I _know _Chris is mine too. If he has even a fraction of your abilities, the two of you are going to make an incredible team and I'm going to make sure both of you embrace that part of your gifts."

"I am so worried about him."

"Because he has a lot in common with you?"

"Yeah, it's so hard dad. You and mom are amazing. I'm beginning to like J'onn and Dr. Swann and Dr. Crosby, I am, but-"

"You're alone."

He nodded. "Sometimes I think I fit with people who have abilities but Kyla was a disaster. Chloe...I really love her dad, but she doesn't believe me."

"I'll admit it's confusing me too. I thought you liked Lana."

"Chloe saved my life; she risked exposure to keep me alive. She's smart and funny and never once treated me differently for being an alien and she's the best patrol partner I could ask for. I...if things had worked out differently the day we met or the day of Spring Formal...we'd be dating already."

"But Lana-"

"I don't know. I just...she wouldn't even visit me when I was dying, dad. Chloe would and she saved me; Lana doesn't even bother and acts all offended I've not had enough time for her in the middle of about five personal crises. I wish people believed me."

"Your mom and I aren't sold on this, son. You're young. You fall hard and fast in crushes like with Kyla. I can understand how Chloe feels the same way. If you two are meant to be together, it'll happen. Things take time Clark."

"Not Chris."

"What?"

"Dad, mom's almost twenty-five weeks except she's not. She's _only _been pregnant for five weeks in normal time. _Five weeks _that have become about five months. What if this doesn't stop once he's born? What do we do with a kid who can't leave the farm. I was weird, yeah, I get that, believe me. I couldn't do sports or cub scouts or kids' parties and I get that."

"And?"

"I could _leave the house _. If he's an infant one month and two a few months after that, he can never leave, dad. He'll have to hide so much more than I do."

"Maybe he'll slow down."

"I hope so dad. I really do."

"Lana, hey!" he said, opening the door to the office of the new Crows assistant coach, Jason Teague. Clark knew of him. He'd been a hotshot at Met U and would have gone pro but, last year as a senior, he'd torn his ACL and ruined his career. What he was doing teaching history at Smallville High and coaching on the side when his father owned the most influential law firm in the city (well besides Clark's grandfather's) was beyond Clark. What Lana had been doing sneaking in there the last week, well, Clark had that figured out pretty easily.

"Clark! What are you doing in here?"

"What am I doing in here? I am trying to get you to talk to me. We have a history project due in five days and we've not met once about it. I'm supposed to help you with your family tree project and you're helping me research my dad's family. I mean, obviously I'm not going to find anything about my birth parents but dad's family has roots pretty deep in Lowell County."

Lana offered half a smile. "Not as deep as Henry Small's."

"I stand corrected, true. I just...we need to get this stuff done because I am not going to get a bad grade in history because we're in a weird place."

"Clark-"

He shrugged. "It's not about us-us. In fact, a lot has happened in the six weeks since I got sick. More than I can even explain, and I think it's a great idea we're friends. I...don't take this the wrong way because you're a good friend..." Sort of, Clark thought to himself. "But I don't think about you like that anymore."

Lana frowned but also relaxed. "Good. I feel much better about that. I...I've met someone else, Clark."

He shook his head. "And I chased you into his office," he hissed, lowering his voice. "Lana, you're not as secretive as you think you are."

"I'm the new records keeper for the team. I'm here officially."

"The season starts in earnest with summer training in August. This is flimsy and we both know it. Lana, you can't date a coach. Christ, he's twenty-two and you're sixteen!"

"We're not doing anything illegal yet," she corrected. "Besides, let's be honest, Clark, just because _you've _noticed things doesn't mean that a normal person has."

Clark stepped back a few steps, glad that the door was shut and no one could hear them. "Excuse me?"

"Clark, we both know you're not normal. I've known it since the tornado that you flew to fucking save me. You're a meteor mutant, duh."

"I..."

She shrugged. "Actually, it makes so much sense why you liked Kyla and why you're making puppy eyes all during AP Euro with Chloe."

"Excuse me?"

"Pete mentioned some things about Chloe to me the other day when I was cramming for literature with him. She's a mutant, you're a mutant. I think that's, uh, well that's something good."

He frowned. "Pete what?"

She snorted. "He didn't take out a service announcement or an ad. He didn't even admit you were different when I pressed. But it's obvious. I mean, you're tornado proof among other things I figure and Chloe's...well Pete says he isn't exactly sure all she does. I mean, really, if you think about it, isn't it best that meteor mutants date each other."

"How so?" he asked, tone measured.

"Well you're both already not really human so that's...you just have more in common than you do with normal people."

"You know. Let's just pretend we did the project together, okay? I'm not infected, thanks, and neither is Chloe but with the attitude you have about people who can't even control that they have abilities...that's shitty Lana. They're not less than you are."

"They're freaks, Clark. Most of them have gone crazy and tried to kill people. You and Chloe seem stable enough for now and that's good and I'm here if you ever think...just keep fighting that struggle not to snap, okay?"

"I'm not infected! And I'm not crazy. Chloe's not crazy. God, you and Pete deserve each other. When you're done doing something insanely stupid with Jason Teague, why don't you just date Pete."

She shrugged. "Clark, you saved my life. Chloe's nice enough to me. I can make exceptions to the rules. You're fine, okay?"

"Glad if I were infected, you'd make 'exceptions' for me. Ugh. Just do the project on your own. I don't even care if I fail it."

"Whatever, be overly sensitive about it, Clark. I'm saying I think you and Chloe are great together. You'll be very...you just will fit cause you're similar is all."

"Uh-huh," he drawled. "God, I am so glad I got over you. You and Pete, ugh. I'm definitely streamlining my life."

She shrugged again, this time tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Fine, we'll do our work on our own and lie about it. I don't like your attitude. Your loss though. I've been able to trace my roots back to this Countess in Paris in the 1500s. It's interesting stuff," with that, she strode out of the office, leaving Clark blinking there stupidly.

"Random," he replied, turning to Jason's desk. If he were here, he might as well steal a pen. His was totally out of ink and he had nothing to take notes with for next period. Reaching into the mug on Jason's desk, Clark stopped and eyed a photo. It was old, but it wasn't any more than thirteen years old.

Because a very young Lex was in it, but he was still bald.

"The fuck?" Clark asked, stepping forward and grabbing the photo from its place. It was of a group of people outside what looked like a summer lake house. Some he recognized. He'd researched the Teagues enough to know Genevieve and Edward on sight as well as a young boy standing in front of them who had to be Jason. There were Lionel and Lex along with Lillian and a small blond boy who stood a bit off to himself, a bow and toy arrow clutched in his hand. He didn't seem to be tied to any of the three sets of parents.

Scratch that, _couldn't be _because Clark knew Lillian and Lionel only had one living legitimate son and that Jason, also, was an only child. Over the last six weeks, he'd come to learn that, when they'd been married, Dr. Crosby and Dr. Swann had only had one daughter, Patricia, the little red head with the locket standing by her father's wheelchair.

Swann knew the Teagues.

Swann fucking knew them and had for over a decade.

"Oh my god," Clark said, shoving the picture into his jacket pocket. He had to tell his parents and Chloe right away. Swann being connected to the Luthors and the Teagues wasn't a coincidence and it couldn't be leading anywhere good.

It was then he felt it, a hand way too strong on his shoulder. Clark didn't have time to say anything or to speed before something like lightning lanced through his body. It occurred to him that as that power surged through him, bringing him to his knees, a deep voice behind him had sad something that sounded like Latin.

Ugh, he owed Chloe a cookie. Witches were real.

And they _hurt _.

Clark rolled over on his back and he'd have been doing better if it were just Kryptonite tearing into him and not whatever Harry Potter had done to him. "Coach Teague?"

Jason smiled and it reminded him of expressions he'd seen Lionel make while his mom had worked for him. "My mother has been looking for someone like you for a very, very long time, Clark." He spit out something else terse in Latin and purple light surged through Clark, making him scream.

"Stop."

"You're extraordinary," Jason said, shutting the blinds. "Sound proofed. I made arrangements and dad paid for them. Scream all you want. Door's locked."

"I...make it stop."

Jason laughed and Clark decided he'd rather be turned into a toad or whatever than have that lightening lance through him again as it assaulted him for a third time, threatening his consciousness. "It's just getting started, Traveler. I promise."

With that, Clark's stamina gave out and darkness engulfed him


	17. Chapter 17

**16**

When Clark woke, he did not expect the sight before him. When Jason had gotten the upper hand on him, he'd assumed that he'd wake up in a lab, some place cold and subterranean with concrete walls and flickering luminescence. The room he was in instead, looked like a log cabin resort-wood walls, woven blankets with patterns not unlike the Kawatchees' adorning them, simple, hand made furniture, including the four poster bed he was laying on. Clark stood up and shook his head. Why they'd made no effort to contain him, he didn't know. Hell, he'd have left that ass Jason around permanently to guard him with that light show of his. Shrugging, Clark moved to slip into superspeed.

Then found he couldn't.

Throat dry, he tried his other abilities-strength, invulnerability, X-ray and heat vision-all of them weren't working. It was as thorough as what had happened with Eric Summers two years ago, almost.

"What the Hell?"

A familiar voice sounded behind him. "On your wrist. Genevieve and Edward have perfected their 'skills' to contain those of us here."

Frowning, Clark turned around to find Lex standing behind him. He blinked. Lex was dressed plainly in mint green scrubs, a small band of what looked like bent willow twigs around his left arm. Looking down, Clark eyed his right wrist. The band there was thicker, made of a collection of roots and twigs with some large central stone embedded in it. It shone like amethyst, but Clark was fairly certain it wasn't.

"The fuck? Did you do this?"

Lex laughed, tone bitter. "Clark, would I be caught dead looking like this if I could help it?"

Clark considered that. Lex never looked anything but polished. "No."

"I'm not exactly here voluntarily," he added, gesturing to his wrist again. "It appears you and I are special."

"Huh?"

"The Teagues are looking for someone, for something they call 'The Traveler.' But they're not sure who it is."

"But I thought when Jason took me-"

"They're unsure. They dead certain it has to do with the meteor shower, but they're not sure how. Edward is betting that I was _affected _that day more than just my immune system and my hair, from what he's said to me so far, something akin to brainwashing by alien intelligences."

"Heh, that's pretty crazy," Clark replied, pulling at the manacle on his wrist and shocked he couldn't even bend it. "Aliens, right."

"Genevieve's betting on you because you landed that day, didn't you?"

Clark swallowed but kept tugging ineffectively at his band. "Lex help me get this off and we'll get yours off and then we'll get out of here. I'm not sticking around for those psychos."

Lex sighed. "First of all, as ridiculous as this sounds, the bands are enchanted. They won't come off. They're each calibrated to take our abilities. I don't heal and my metabolism doesn't process like it normally does so I can be drugged like this. You don't have your speed or your strength."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Clark said, stepping closer and glaring at him. "Did you do this?"

"No, I assuredly wouldn't, Clark, and you should know that by now. However, I'm not blind and I _am _brilliant. I _hit _you that day on the bridge. I've always known I did and I pay attention. You're fast, strong and invulnerable, under non-magical circumstances, and I'm partially convinced those weird fires that week I married Desiree were related to you too somehow."

"I-"

"Don't lie. You know I'm different. You've noticed with as many attacks as I've had that I heal too fast and too well."

Clark had noticed that Lex didn't tend to bruise long before Helen had admitted they were studying his differences scientifically. "Yeah, I did."

"Then I noticed you because you're not as secretive or skilled as you think you are. But I didn't do this. I'm an inmate here, just like you."

Clark sighed and, looking back at himself, noticed his own pale blue scrubs. "How long have you been here?"

"Only about thirty-six hours, just enough to have a first meeting with Edward-Genevieve, thank God, was overseas in Paris-and to be brought up to speed on whatever this madness is via interrogation."

"I don't know what's going on."

Lex shook his head and started to pace. "I'd wager you know more than I do. They're looking for three elements, some form of crystals left for a traveler from the stars. That's you, isn't it?"

"But you just said Edward thought you'd been brainwashed or something by the shower."

"Except, I _know _they've got the wrong man on this one and that I'd never heard of these stones until yesterday morning. You have."

"I-"

"You're a terrible liar, Clark. What the Hell is going on?"

"Uh, how did you even get here?" Clark asked, desperately trying to buy time and to distract Lex.

"Helen. She wasn't ever on my father's payroll, which, I'll grant did cross my mind. However, her father is the Teagues' chief research scientist here. When we first started exploring the limits of my ability, I didn't realize what she was getting at. Her being in Smallville was a plant. She's been scouting here for unusual suspects to refer to her father and for him to procure for the Teagues. I certainly know how to pick wives and fiances."

Clark sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Clark, be honest. Lionel won't care if I'm gone and he'll hide it from the board as long as he can as a power play. Helen certainly won't admit I've gone missing. Your parents will but I'm not even sure where we are. Based on the foliage outside, I'd wager somewhere in the Northwest like Oregon. It'll take them time to find us, and you're useless to us and I'm half out of it from the drugging."

"I-"

"You don't have your powers but you're a smart guy, Clark. Help me think our way out of this, please. There's nothing to hide anymore because not only do _I _know but two truly crazy people know and have us subdued."

Shaking his head, Clark sat back down on the foot of the bed. "Lex, I can't."

"Why not? You're an alien. You came in the meteor shower thirteen years ago. I'm not wrong am I? Genevieve has no reason to risk kidnapping you if you weren't special."

Clark looked away, staring firmly at the band on his arm. Fucking magic. "I don't want to talk about this."

"But I know, Clark. There's nothing to hide. I'm not your enemy here. We're the only two captives they have so we're all we've got until someone figures out how to get to us and that could be a very long time if ever. Help me."

"I...people say that, but how do you know?"

"I assure you even if 'Luthor' is my surname that I'm not Satan."

Clark shook his head and forced his tone to remain neutral. "Pete knows about me, alright? I told Pete back this fall when he saw my ship for the first time. I had to because I couldn't deny it."

"Like with me now?" Lex asked and his tone was softer. Maybe it mollified him to know that Pete hadn't even gotten the vaunted Secret out of Clark except in a move of utter desperation.

"Yes. I thought it'd be okay. He was stand off about it at first but we got better, I guess."

"Guess?"

"He stared at me a lot, egged me on to do favors for him with my powers like a pet. I...we had a fight about it a few weeks ago and it made him mad. I can't prove it but I think he started shooting his mouth off to Lana."

Lex considered this. "Alright, this is something. Helen ratted me out to get here. Lana...only a blind man wouldn't see how she's been trailing Jason. If Pete told her something, then she might have let it slip to him, a bit like a game of 'telephone.' It doesn't explain why Jason was even at Smallville High to start."

"I think I can, actually. I think it's all related. Pete told Helen about Chloe and I think she told the Teagues to plant Jason as a spy, looking for her. I mean, Pete said he talked to Helen about a healing meteor mutant, one who works sort of like Florence Nightingale but better."

"I self heal."

"I'm talking about Chloe," Clark finished, glancing up at him. "Helen has my blood work. She took it when I had a fever because dad got scared and desperate and called her in. She knew exactly what I was and has for over six weeks. I think as tempting as pleasing her father would be for her, that she was going to keep me as a 'discovery' all to herself and fuck the Teagues over. Maybe you were a way to placate for time, I dunno."

"I'm lost here, Clark. You I knew about. What is this about Chloe?"

"She'll kill me for this but we're all in the same boat, the three of us, aren't we? Chloe was visiting Granville with her mom during the shower I crashed in and she was affected very similarly to you. You might heal just yourself from basically anything, but Chloe does that _and _can heal the dying."

"She what?"

"She saved my life, Lex. The fever I had was caused by mold from my ship and there wasn't a way to treat it by Earth means. She came to see me and waited until dad left to heal me; she risked her secret for mine."

"I see. But Pete knows about her?"

"Yeah and he went to Helen but I guess even he couldn't go _that _far and give her Chloe's name. He just gave her the M.O. Since the Teagues had had her trapped before for six months and she was their prime suspect to be 'The Traveler' until us, they must have jumped on the description and brought Jason in for extra recon. I just got even more lucky that Lana blabbed about me to him and he decided that I sounded like the better candidate."

"Lana knows?"

"She thinks I'm a mutant," Clark said, shrugging. "I get the feeling Pete's dropped more than his fair share of hints over the last few weeks and she already suspected cause, yeah, I did save her from a tornado."

Lex smirked. "Only you can make that last sentence sound common place."

Clark blushed, uncomfortable with the scrutiny. "I...it's just this sucks. I don't like talking about it, about my differences. I know you always thought it was personal. It wasn't. Pete found out because he saw my ship. Chloe and I traded secrets after she exposed herself to save me. Lana, I never ever would confirm that for her, but she's going around thinking I'm a meteor freak and obviously bringing it up with people no matter what I do. Ugh."

"Clark, you know that I'm not Pete or Lana. First, I can hardly throw stones even if I'm merely mutated."

He laughed bitterly. "Only in Smallville is being a mutant kind of every day."

"Quite. But I'm not like them. You saved my life more than once. I respect that and you. I'd never hurt you."

"Hope so," Clark said. "Still, humans don't take me very well."

"Because Pete used you and Lana's probably being her usual open-minded self about your special nature."

"Yeah. Lana...I can almost get that. I was pretty much over her when she didn't visit me while I had the fever because it was 'too hard' for her. She's selfish, but Pete. No offense but he was my best friend."

"Of course, you'd known each other since first grade."

"Right and he's spreading my secret like it's a game for him and treating me inhuman before that. If _Pete _couldn't get it, how could anyone?"

"I assume Chloe is easier to work with," Lex said and under the situation, he had no right to smirk like that.

"Chloe's like me, sort of," Clark replied, unable to keep the pride from creeping into his voice. "She saves people and she does it even if it risks herself. She's known for about six weeks and never once made me feel like crap about it."

"I can see now why Lana fell out of fashion with you. I believe you're smitten."

Clark rolled his eyes. "Now, someone gets it. Even Chloe doesn't believe I like her! Not that it matters because Genevieve's gonna abracadabra me to pieces."

"One thing at a time. At least we know _how _we got here. We know the score on each other."

Clark could practically hear the huff of "finally." He ignored that. Pardon him for not taking out a newspaper ad about being an alien for all his friends and acquaintances' benefits.

"Yeah."

"You said that Chloe was here before because of her ability?"

Clark nodded, not willing to explain that she'd once been 'Lois Lane.' That wasn't his secret to tell. "Yes, Genevieve became aware of it and had her tested. She's very resilient to injury, probably more than you. She didn't tell me all that happened but the experiments they did on her were horrible."

Lex frowned. "Define 'horrible.'"

"Things that humans couldn't possibly survive but she did anyway. I don't want to know what they're going to do to us. Magic hurts me and, yeah, I can't believe that's even real."

"Clark?"

"What?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're an alien. How is magic too far out there for you?"

"It just is! You don't say some Latin and then shoot lightening, except apparently Jason just did that to me and had me flat on my back! It's like suddenly finding out _Hansel and Gretel _might be a true story."

"Breathe, Clark," Lex said, still pacing. "If Chloe was here for six months once-"

"Not here-here, with the Teagues. The last facility they had exploded."

"Obviously explains what really happened to Genevieve's face then," he amended. "Does she know what these stones are?"

"No. We've been trying to find who they belong to, I swear it. We have a contact, uh, I just met him recently and he's a Martian-"

Lex's eyes glittered. "Are you serious?"

"No I'm making things up for fun before I get tortured to death."

"No need for sarcasm."

Clark sighed and shook his head. "I've been really busy since I almost died."

"I noticed but that's fairly a nonsequitir."

"Long story super short: We activated my ship to use it to heal my mom. It did save her life but it also made her pregnant and I mean with my _half _sibling. I freaked because it's not only an alien pregnancy but she's at about thirty weeks now or looks it. I got scared so I sought out Virgil Swann to see if he could help me take care of mom and figure out more about my birth people. He knows quite a few 'alien immigrants' to Earth and one of them is a Martian bounty hunter who worked for my birth father the evil alien rapist."

For the first time in their relationship, Lex had no pithy reply. He just stood their blinking at Clark, trying to regain composure.

"Lex?" he asked, waving his hand in front of the other man. "Are you alright?"

"I'm a little confused. Your spaceship impregnated your mother and now you're on a first name basis with SETI's biggest contributor?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Unbelievable. Swann knows my father and the Teagues."

"I know!" Clark shouted. "I found a picture on Jason's desk of all of you-Dr. Crosby and Dr. Swann with their daughter, you and Lionel and Lillian, Jason and his parents, and some blond kid kind of off by himself."

"Oliver Queen. His parents died in a plane crash just days before the meteor shower. Our four families summered together for years and years. Patricia used to joke when we were teenagers that it was a secret society. I thought she was being paranoid, but I think she's right. I think our parents were looking for something."

"Like?"

"Like _you _."

"Do you think I'm wrong and it wasn't Pete shooting off his mouth around Helen and Lana that got me here. Do you think Swann played me all along?"

Lex shrugged. "I know my father always agreed with the Teagues and I'd overhear him arguing _often _with The Queens and Dr. Swann. This might sound insane, but, if you want to know the truth, I don't believe that Oliver's parents' deaths were accidental. I don't think Swann's paralysis was an accident either."

Clark frowned. "What?"

"For a while, I've thought my father rigged the Queen's plane and now that I have the pieces, I wonder if the Teagues didn't set Virgil up."

"I don't understand."

"The ski trip he was injured on? I was there, Clark. It was a rare winter gathering of our families. The person who found him by that tree was Genevieve."

"They didn't want to split the stones and _The Traveler _. Maybe they figured the only way to find them was to work together but your dad and the Teagues are psychotic and couldn't play fair."

"Sounds about like dad's strategy-kill, don't share."

"Right, and now your dad does things on his own like trying to buy out the Kawatchee caves because of the Naman legend, while the Teagues went the evil lab and abduction of mutants route."

"Be thankful that Lionel's out of the loop on this."

"I'd rather deal with Lionel than at least two witches," Clark admitted. "But, Lex, I'm not the guy."

"You're an alien."

"Yeah and there are at least two dozen different types hiding on Earth. Maybe fifty or sixty of us total, most of us in exile. I don't even know the others, except for the Martian. I just know of them and that one day, when I was ready, Swann was going to introduce me to the rest."

Lex whistled. "Two dozen?"

Clark nodded. "I'm the only one of my kind, yeah, but there's a lot of others out there. So far, J'onn the bounty hunter I mentioned, he hadn't found any of them that were missing stones or crystals or whatever."

Lex frowned. "Only one?"

Clark blushed and looked away. "My planet's not there anymore. Dr. Swann said what he does know about my planet comes from SOS messages sent out and then a special message my birth parents sent along with me. J'onn says Krypton was destroyed in a civil war and that even _he _didn't know of any survivors."

"You're alone?"

Clark shrugged and forced his voice to stay even; it broke a little despite his efforts. "I'm the last, except, I guess, for my little brother because he's half Kryptonian like me and half mom."

"Clark, you're sure?"

"Um, yeah, unless J'onn's a complete asshole."

Lex nodded. "They're yours."

"What?"

"The stones are for you."

"You can't know that. J'onn said he'd never even heard of it and apparently he and Jor-El, my dad and friendly intergalactic rapist, were pretty tight."

"Clark-" Lex cautioned and then stopped, apparently deciding not to push it. "We can talk about your family's problems later. I am sorry for you and Martha both that she's been violated like this, but we have to focus on what we know before the Teagues start treating us as they did Chloe. Edward showed me something that they'd found in a tomb in Paris this fall. It was for a Countess Isobel Theoroux."

"Yeah, I know her. She and Genevieve's great great (so many greats) grandmother were rivals in their coven."

"Right," Lex said, pulling out out crayon (Clark assumed the Teagues weren't dumb enough to give them something as sharp as even a pen or pencil) and a sheet of paper and drawing something. "It came with a quatrain about where Isobel thought the stones were hidden and it was decorated with this symbol." He finished by pushing his work toward Clark.

He frowned at the three waving lines arranged in a pyramid shape.

"It looks like the Kawatchee, but why would it be in France? Chief Joseph taught me a few of the translations. I...this is definitely the same language."

"Can you read this?"

He nodded. Between Swann's tutelage and Chief Joseph's lessons, he could read a little bit of Kryptonian (which was all Kawatchee was anyway). "It says 'change' or 'water' depending on the context. It's like how water changes forms? That's why their symbol is the same."

"Why is a symbol from your language something Isobel wanted on her tomb?"

"I don't know."

"Clark, there's something else."

"Really what joy!"

"Edward said all of Genevieve's writings from her ancestors...some are mixed in prophecy."

Clark snorted. Like that existed. "Uh-huh."

"Cassandra Carver could see the future. It's something even mutants could do. Humor me on this."

"Okay?"

"Gertrude-that's Genevieve's ancestor-"

"I know."

"Gertrude predicted that _The Traveler _was still to come, not that he or she was already on Earth in medieval France."

"Uh-huh."

"She said it'd be 'the last,' and she left this symbol in their Grimroire."

"Chloe calls it that too. This is still insane."

"So says the alien to the self-healing mutant," he riposted. Quickly, Lex knocked out another drawing. "This is the other thing they showed me. It's something they've saved in their book for five hundred years. Do you recognize it?"

The symbol was of a diamond surrounding a figure eight; he'd seen it twice before. Once on the tablet that his parents had found with his ship and that he'd only seen the night he'd been told of his origins. The other time had been much more recently, on the message Swann had saved for him.

He couldn't swallow.

"Clark?"

"Yeah, I...it means 'air' but that's not all it is."

"What is it?"

"It's the symbol for my surname; It means 'El.'"


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Clark blinked back at Lex, his eyes wide. I can't be.

His friend quirked his head at him. Why can't you be?

I J'onn, that's the Martian, he said he didn't know if any Kryptonians had left artifacts for me.

It sounds like to me that maybe he just didn't know. If I've got the gist right from Edward, these stones are hundreds of years old. It's possible that they were left here long before your people and Martians ever traded or made contact. Still, you said the symbol is the one for your family. There doesn't seem to be a more likely answer than artifacts marked with Kryptonese-

Kryptonian, Clark corrected offhandedly.

My mistake. But it remains true. These artifacts are decorated with Kryptonian sigils. You're the last Kryptonian as far as you know. They belong to you.

Or to Zod, Clark mumbled to himself too low for Lex to hear him. I but I have no clue where they are or that they were left for me until like two minutes ago. I wouldn't be able to help her if I tried. I mean, fuck, six weeks ago I didn't even have a name for what I was.

Lex frowned. Didn't your birth parents leave anything with your ship?

Not that I know of and, even then, until I met Dr. Swann, I didn't have a prayer of reading the symbols etched on it. I was pretty clueless about everything to you hit me with your Porsche.

You didn't know that you were an alien until then?

I figured some mutation frankly, like an adrenaline overload was causing the strength and speed. It was the best answer I had. I didn't even realize the town was a mutant magnet due to the shower. I just thought I was weird. But then you can't really chock up 'adrenaline' to why a car doing sixty didn't kill me. I it was a pretty bad couple of days.

Lex was still staring at him, his eyes wide. Clark shifted nervously from foot to foot under the scrutiny. You didn't know.

Mom and dad weren't too keen on me squealing it to everyone at five, and, yeah, it's not like they had a clue where I was from either. I am really in the dark on a lot of stuff. I mean, if the Teagues hadn't taken Chloe, I wouldn't even be aware of 'The Traveler.'

Lex frowned. You do know that that won't stop the Teagues, don't you? They'll never stop looking for 'The Traveler.' It's not in their nature, and now that they have you, they certainly won't believe you have no information for them.

Clark started to pace, feeling sweat bead up at his temples and that only happened rarely, when he was nervous. I don't know what we're gonna do. I usually would just bust out of here, no problem. He sighed, holding up his arm. That's not going to happen now.

Do you think that your parents or Chloe might be able to find you, especially Chloe. She's intelligent enough to put the clues together.

That were probably a thousand miles away? Clark kept up his rhythm, boots scraping on the hardwood beneath him. She can figure a lot out, but I don't want to wait. Magic or whatever you want to call it really freaking hurts. Even if I had my abilities, Jason or his mom-and that's assuming Edward can't do the same thing-all of them can probably hurt me.

We don't have much we can do but wait. I've already been over the house: steel doors, bars on the windows, armed guards outside. It's not feasible unless we'd like to get shot.

They wouldn't kill us, Clark countered.

They don't have to. If they shatter a knee cap, then we won't be going anywhere for a long time. They merely need to hobble us if we don't cooperate, Lex replied, rubbing his head a bit. His own nervous tell.

I have nothing to offer anyone though. I have no clues about the stones, at all. I'm like the least informed alien ever. I J'onn didn't even know and he worked for my bio-dad for years. I just- he didn't get to finish because the door to his room opened then.

A man, much shorter than Lex, with graying hair, entered first. He was followed in quick succession by a tall woman with chestnut colored hair. Clark tried not to flinch at the burns that covered her chest, arms, and had clearly ruined her chin and nose, making the latter look melted to her face.

Genevieve.

Clark felt his back go rigid. If Jason had incapacitated him, he really didn't want to know what his mother, older and more practiced, could do to him. Uh.

Her skin was too tight to allow her to smile, but she eyed him carefully. Lex hasn't provided us with much information and I can't say I bought much into my husband's possession theories. You you're more interesting. After all, it doesn't take much effort to find that your adoption was a sham, even less to hack your e-mail records and realize you've been sending quite a few things to Virgil Swann, in the same code on a five hundred year old tomb in Paris and the Kawatche Caves.

Clark swallowed, feeling stupid for ever using Kryptonian to communicate with Dr. Swann or even to practice the basics with him. I just want to go home.

Lightning arched through him and he hissed. It wasn't a circumstance to what Jason had done, but he had the feeling that Genevieve was giving off her warning shot. Looking up, he saw the purple tendrils of light fade from her fingertips. That's not on the docket. I've searched over twenty years for you. Gesturing toward her nose, she added. I've given up almost everything for the power you have at your disposal.

Clark inched to Lex, not that there was much the other man could do to protect him. Please don't.

She shrugged, skin stretched so tightly over her chest that he winced in sympathy with the movement. It depends on you.

How so?

Come with me quietly to the main room and we'll discuss what you do know, Clark. Otherwise, I'll have to take you by force and that won't be fun for you. She laughed harshly. It'd be much more fun for me.

I can you let Lex go at least?

He'd be a liability, talking about what I've done. I can think of other things to do with him. Shouldn't let a mutant go to waste like that. Edward?

Her husband nodded and held up a taser. Same thing applies to you, Lex. There's a hard way and an easy way.

Lex, probably thinking back on his own self-defense training, swung for Edward when he grew near him. The blow connected, leaving Edward spitting blood from a split lip. Genevieve shouted something terse in Latin, bringing Lex to his knees, screaming in pain.

We said the easy way.

Lex howled and Clark reached down to hold his shoulders, shaking himself when a burning sensation crept into his palms. Stop.

You'll come with me, Clark?

He nodded and headed to the door. Just don't hurt anyone.

Clark found himself sitting on a large leather sofa in what looked like the center of a ridiculously large log cabin. Chloe hadn't been wrong about the Teagues preferring areas that looked like camping retreats or summer camps. Edward had manhandled Lex somewhere else in the house and now Genevieve was staring hungrily at him from her perch on the other end of the couch.

I want to go home.

Don't be so repetitive, Clark, she said. You know you aren't leaving. I want those stones and, even if we find them, there's no guarantee that I can wield them myself. I need you and your connection to them as insurance.

I I didn't even know they existed until about seven weeks ago. I don't even know very much about my homeworld. I'm learning some from Virgil but I don't know anything else, I swear it.

Convenient.

He scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. Don't you have like a truth spell or something? Can't you tell when I'm being honest?

She nodded and this time what she whispered sound more accented, similar to Latin, but possibly Italian or Romanian. Her eyes flashed purple and Clark found that he was speaking quickly and against his own will.

I don't know anything. I crashed here when I was three years old and my parents found me. I have a ship but even if I can read a lot of symbols now, there's nothing there about any stones, I promise. There's just nothing there. I can't use them. I have fuck all idea where they are!

She frowned and swore. I'm not letting you go. You do know that, don't you? I have a better idea.

Like? Clark gulped, thinking of experiments and torture. He didn't want her to see how much he could withstand especially with his powers muted, maybe even gone permanently. How would he know how magic worked?

We're going to Paris. Perhaps visiting Isobel's tomb will jog your connection to your people.

I really don't have one of those. I didn't even know what Krypton was until I contacted Dr. Swann. I mean, I've basically learned what little I do know in a month and a half!

She shrugged and eyed him intently. Then you're going to get more of a crash course.

When Clark was returned to his room, he found Lex lying on a modest twin bed in the corner. He was bruised and breathing heavily. It annoyed Clark that he couldn't blur over to him in an instant, but he was close enough to him in a bit.

Lex?

Remind me when we get out of here to bankrupt their law firm. I think that'd be fitting.

What happened?

Testing. At least Edward doesn't appear to have abilities. I suppose I should be thankful for small blessings.

Clark sighed and nodded. I I don't know what they're going to do with you.

I can imagine more experimenting as Chloe mentioned, although I assure you my healing isn't instant.

They probably don't care. They'll hold people for months.

Duly noted. You look even more shaken than I expected. Let's pretend that it's not all about me.

Clark blushed. It's not actually, outside of me being glad you're basically in one piece. They're taking me to Paris to visit Isobel's tomb, to see if, I guess, being near all those markings on her grave jump start any ability I have to find the stones. I think they're reaching like crazy, but I don't think they know what else to do. I assume they thought 'The Traveler' would come ready with all the answers or already have the stones waiting to go.

That's not good. Even if Chloe and, perhaps, Dr. Swann if she trusted him enough to go to him, even they won't be able to trace you on an impromptu trip to Paris.

Then let's hope they find you first and you give them excellent directions, Clark joked weakly. Uh, is there anything I can get you?

There are plastic cups on the desk and a sink in the bathroom. It's hardly Perrier but I'll live.

Clark chuckled a bit at the thought of Lex Luthor having to do with tap water. Doing as he was told, a few minutes later, he handed his friend his drink. Don't worry. Chloe's really smart. She can figure this out. I mean, even if it was a bit of a fluke, she bested Genevieve before.

Lex coughed as he drank. Let us hope so. Get rest, Clark. Dealing with the Teagues is draining as Hell and you have a transatlantic flight coming up.

Yeah, the first time out of Smallville and as far as Europe and it's being kidnapped by a psychotic coven.

Your life is never boring.

Thanks, Clark said glumly, going over to his four poster bed and curling up to sleep. It was fitful at best and filled with nightmares of electricity or the witch equivalent flooding through him.


	19. Chapter 19

**19**

Clark struggled as they put him on the private jet. He wished he could have stayed with Lex, whom he didn't think would fare too well with Dr. Bryce's father working on him. Clark was large, a good-sized guy even without his abilities, but he hadn't counted on Genevieve's security team escorting him to the jet personally. Shouting his displeasure as he was thrown onto the jet and then handcuffed to the seat, Clark looked to his left and glared at his captor.

"So Mr. Teague and Jason aren't coming?'

"Edward has to look after the facilities here. Just because we've found the one we wanted, doesn't mean the freaks we've captured should go to waste. I bought Cadmus out from under the Hardwicks. After all, it has it's purposes."

He shook his head, thinking of how many people she might have captured there, including his friend. "So you'll never stop?"

"The stones promise great power and should enhance my abilities. There's always ways to ensure that I achieve more, go further. The biggest way to do that is to keep synthesizing and understanding these 'peoples' powers."

"For your own gain."

She smiled at him; it was not a pleasant look on her. "What other reasons are there in the world. So do tell, Dr. Bryce's daughter has only been moderately useful. She did hint to us that a very special friend of ours was loose in Smallville, what an ideal and desolate place to hide. The Florence Nightingale of our collection. Have you met her Clark. After all, Dr. Bryce treated your mother. Did she drop any hints to you?"

He sighed and tested if his cuffs might even give a little. They didn't and she laughed at him. "I don't acknowledge anything."

"It doesn't matter. Dr. Bryce wouldn't name names but I know that Lois Lane is in your little hamlet. I'll find her and make her pay for what she did to me."

"What?"

She gestured to her face. "She heals, you know, not just others, but herself remarkably fast. I can't scar her for life even though I desperately want to. I can only make her suffer."

"I...can't you just stop? You have me. You're going to get your stones because you'll lead me around and use me until I _can _find them. I just don't understand why you'd do this."

"Can you really not? You're familiar with Lionel Luthor. I'm no more ruthless than he is."

Clark gulped. That was not a good sign. "I just want you to leave Lex alone."

"Do you want me to leave Lois alone too."

"I don't know a Lois Lane."

She nodded and poured herself a drink of white wine. "You're a terrible liar, Clark. Interesting in someone with so much to lose when the truth comes out."

"Tell me about it," he said moodily, slouching in his seat and watching the clouds roll by.

If he'd had more freedom, he'd almost be amazed by the beauty of Notre Dame. The famous rose window that let in light throughout the Gothic structure, the incredible stone arches, the myriad of statues and commemoration of saints. It was overwhelming. Genevieve led the small procession. Her book-he really wasn't going to call it a Grimroire-gripped in her hands. She'd issued the standard disclaimer that if he tried anything, she'd essentially electrocute him into submission. Clark still wondered if she could make him a toad.

That idea was enough to make him grimace and follow her, regardless. She really didn't need the four body guards, all armed with tasers, accompanying him to the tomb.

When they got there, Clark wasn't sure what he was expecting or even why there would be a tomb of a heretic burned at the stake in the most famous church in the world. Weird didn't even cover it. He was thinking it would be a large marble statue, something imposing. Instead, he found a small, modest bronze etching sitting over top of what he assumed below was the crypt. The relief was of a woman wearing a necklace that reminded him oddly of Lana's. However, what drew him in was the sigil for water on the seal, just as Edward revealed there would be.

"Are you getting anything?" she demanded, her foot tapping impatiently.

"What am I supposed to get? If I'm here to have a magical mystery experience, it's really not happening. I see some bronze, big deal."

"Touch the symbol."

"Huh?"

"It's your planet's writing; it's connected to you. Touch it."

"I, um, dunno about that," he hesitated eyeing the four black suited men behind him.

Sparks of purple electricity-that was the best analogy he had for her power-arched through the fingers of her left hand. "You'll do it. It's inevitable because I've barely touched you. I can do things that make what Jason did feel pleasant."

Sighing, Clark reached out and touched the symbol. "You know this is such a dumb idea-" He trailed off them, feeling something fast and hectic flow through his mind, image he couldn't begin to understand, but his lightning fast mind tried processing anyway. He saw things from what looked like maybe Aztec sacrifices, Egyptian pyramids, and was it China too? An old temple perhaps? He saw three crytals too-one black with the sign for water, one white with the one for fire, and a silver piece with his own family sigil etched into it. "Ugh," he said, falling backwards on his ass and shaking. What a head trip.

Behind him, Genevieve grinned greedily. "You felt it."

"Felt like being hit by a truck. Witches pack a wallop," Clark lied. "I think it was booby trapped."

"Bullshit, you lie."

"No, I'm not," he said, trying to keep everything steady and calm. He really was a shitty liar.

The lightning pulsed so bright he had to shut his eyes and she reached to his shoulder. He inched away, knowing she'd touch him directly, try and save the light show for another time when they weren't in public, but at least make him cow to her. Clark tried moving away from her with all he had, but her hand was moving nearer and two of her security team grabbed him, holding him mostly still as he thrashed.

"Tell me what you know."

"Nothing," he said, knowing instinctively that she could never have the stones.

"Too bad, this is really going to sting."

Suddenly a red blur slammed into her, knocking her to the side. When it stopped, Clark was blinking up at a boy who couldn't have been more than thirteen and who was no taller than Chloe. "What the Hell?"

Just as quickly he felt the pressure on his shoulders abate and, looking behind him, saw a blonde girl with wide brown eyes touch two of the guards and disappear in a green mist. She reappeared almost instantly, grinning to herself. Holding out her hand, she helped Clark to his feet. "Alicia Baker and that's Bart Allen. Chloe sent us on ahead."

"Where is she?"

Alicia shook her head and ducked at a swing aimed at her from one of the two remaining guards. Turning around, she grabbed his arm and disappeared again and Clark wondered if she were vaporizing them. In front of him, Genevieve was beginning to sit back up, shaking her head groggily. They didn't have much time before she tried flash frying all of them, over in the darkened corner where the tomb lay.

"Bart!" Clark called, trying to stay out of distance of the final henchman. His hands were bound still, but at least handcuffed in front of him, so he'd been able to take Alicia's hand. "Do something."

In a flash, the kid was gone and a back again as the red blur circled the guard like a tornado. When he was done, the man was covered almost head to toe in thick rope. Pressing his palm flat against him and shoving, Bart pushed the man onto his back, where he wriggled to escape. Grinning back at Clark, Bart congratulated himself, "Am I awesome or am I awesome."

"Fast too, damn."

Alicia popped back into reality in front of them. "And how fun is it sending guys to Timbuktu. I think we'll be okay for a while."

"Really?" Genevieve asked, standing, her eyes glowing violet. "Do you really think that?"

"Ah, Stretch," Bart set, looking up at him. "Now would be the time to vamoose."

Faster than Clark could process and he was getting tired of things moving so damn fast, Genevieve made her move. Knocking out Alicia first with her light show and then Bart. Cursing under his breath, Clark backed up a few steps. Alicia might have been able to teleport him out of there, but definitely not unconscious. Bart wasn't in any better shape, but at least both appeared to still be breathing.

"I won't help you," he said.

"Then suffer," she said.

Bracing for impact, Clark closed his eyes and held up his hands, as if that could save him. But nothing came. Opening them again. he gaped at Chloe, standing in front of him, taking the bulk of the hit. "The hell?"

"Sorry, we're late," she hissed and to his amazement, bright white light formed a shield about her front, repelling what Genevieve was doing. Clark blinked at the light show, the warring colors of purple and white gold, the way both women were sweating like crazy now.

"Ah, Chlo?"

"Concentrating," she gritted out.

"You're not-" he was going to say "kill her" when Genevieve screamed and fell to the floor unconscious. Apparating in front of him was J'onn Jones, still looking ridiculous in his purple leather coat.

"Kal-El, I see we're in time."

"I," he started looking between Chloe who was breathing heavily and J'onn. "Did you kill her?"

"I knocked her out. I'll be taking her the same place I took Jason and Edward earlier."

"But no killing?"

Chloe frowned at him. "What do you take us for?"

"I...nothing. It's just that you've threatened it before and J'onn's a bounty hunter!"

"Bounty hunter, not a murderer," he corrected, scooping up Genevieve. "Don't worry, where I'm taking her, she'll never get out."

That didn't really reassure Clark. "The Zone?"

"No, but somewhere about as remote," he said before disappearing again.

"You know, this people just blurring in when I can't sucks."

Chloe shook her head and touched him and he frowned. Feeling his strength return. Still confused, Clark snapped his cuffs as easily as if they were tissue paper. "God, you pack a wallop."

"Helps when you siphon off someone else's magic."

"Energy," he corrected.

"You're never letting that go."

"Probably not. You wake up Alicia and I'll get Bart. Between the three of us, we'll get you back to the states."

She grinned and knelt down by the other girl, shaking her shoulders gently. "My hero."

He snorted, "More like you're mine."


	20. Chapter 20

20

After Clark got home, he was a little disappointed to find that Alicia and Bart left very quickly. Chloe told him not to take it personally. Even if Genevieve and her family were neutralized by the Manhunter, they'd both been on the run for a long time and it was the life they knew. Smiling cheekily, however, she admitted that she'd be working on convincing Alicia to settle down, back into life in Smallville and enroll in high school there. His parents, scared to death, were relieved to see him and gave him more pie for dessert than he could even finish. That left him and Chloe sitting at the table, awkwardly saying nothing and listening to forks scrape on plates as both finished their slices of apple pie.

Eventually, it was Clark who broached the chasm between them. "So, uh, I have a lot of questions."

She nodded and looked up from her plate but didn't quite make eye contact with him. "J'onn's a psychic and he was able to locate Bart and Alicia with some effort. Since he's so fast..."

"Recruiting didn't take long but what took you so long to get to me?"

"Well hacking Cadmus records and going to save Lex first since he can actually be killed. We assumed you were there until he told us you'd gotten an all expenses paid trip to Paris. I...did you seriously tell him?"

"He figured most of it out, probably the day he hit me," Clark conceded. "I'm not a good liar and it was obvious if he wasn't 'The Traveler' that I was."

She frowned. "And after Pete, you think you can trust him."

"Hope so. From one guy with odd abilities to another, a bit of a freak pact."

"You shouldn't use that word to describe yourself."

"Then alien to mutant then."

She chuckled a little but started to drum on the table, her nails clicking on the wood. "I wasn't going to kill her, you know."

"I...I wasn't sure what 'Lois Lane' would do. Your real dad's a general and war's a ruthless thing. She tortured you for months and I thought you'd reflect everything back and leave her a cinder. After you threatened Swann's life, can you blame me?"

"No, I really can't. I told you then it was an empty threat, but you've seen a side of me that I've worked to keep hidden even from Uncle Gabe for over two years."

"Chloe-"

She shook her head and reached out for his hand. He took hers, glad she'd offered it. " Lois , it's who I really am. I want you to be comfortable with that."

"I want you to too. She didn't die."

"And I didn't really live for a long time. Clark, I'm going home. Dad's stationed in Geneva with Lucy and I just...I need to see them again."

"You're leaving?"

"I don't have a reason to stay. I'm not being hunted anymore; J'onn's seen to that."

"Dr. Bryce!"

"Plane accident flying to a residency interview at Johns Hopkins. I figure Lionel did it. He might have it out for Lex in some weird Oedipal avoidance way, but he's territorial. No one else can touch his son."

"Oh whoa," he said, not exactly sad that Helen was out of the picture.

"Yeah, busy couple of days."

"I'll say. Chlo-Lois, you can't leave me."

"I care a lot about you, Clark. You're by far the best friend I've ever had, but Lana's in the picture and I know you care about her mom. I haven't seen my dad for more than twenty-four hours since I escaped the Teagues. Home is what I need right now."

"The Planet! I mean and The Torch! You want to be a reporter and this town's great for that with all the EPA errors and mutant trouble and denial."

"I can find something at boarding school," she said, squeezing his hand before standing and making her way to his back porch. "Goodbye Clark. If you respect me at all, you won't just pop up at my uncle's house."

With that she was gone, and Clark suddenly felt cold for one of the only times in his life.

One week later and Clark hadn't stopped dreaming about her. His mom was huge, about thirty-five weeks if it had been a normal pregnancy, even Dr. Swann, whom Clark was on not so great terms with after he'd hidden his connection to the Teagues and Luthors (but he was the only doctor they had), figured she could deliver any time in the coming eight or nine days. Clark couldn't imagine having a little brother that fast. He just couldn't.

He was sitting in his loft, pointedly not brooding about Lois leaving Smallville, when he heard the sound of soft leather soles on his steps.

"Is this loft taken?"

He shook his head and looked back at Lex. "Hey."

"Prosaic," his friend said, taking a seat at Clark's desk. "We may need to talk."

"Maybe. It's been a week and no one's come for me so I guess Lionel still doesn't know."

"Not for lack of trying. He's closing in on the caves. He wrangled guardianship away from LexCorp when I was abducted. Whatever's down there connected to your people, he's desperate to find it."

"Joy," Clark replied, sighing. "If it's not one crazy rich person, it's another."

"Speaking of that. How's Dr. Swann treating your mom?"

"With the utmost care. I'm not speaking to him or J'onn for that matter. I...they lied about their connection to 'The Traveler' and to what your dad and them started. I don't know what else he's hiding but it scares me. I feel pretty used."

"You may change your mind in time. He still helped teach you about the symbols, right?"

"Yeah, but maybe I'm not ready to embrace all this and the 'immigrant' community. Christ, I'm not even sixteen and I'm supposed to mingle with about forty or fifty exiles from across the universe. I'm not ready for any of that. I'm not ready to be that alien, you know?"

"I can't say I understand, but I can see it bothers you."

He shrugged. "Thanks for being deferential at least."

"So, I noticed Gabe tendered his resignation and I can't even fathom how fast Chloe and he skipped town. There's no need for her to run from the Teagues as far as I understand it."

"She needed a break from all this, change of venue," Clark hedged, not wanting to spill the secret of how Chloe was connected to Lois Lane. It wasn't his secret to tell.

"And that's why you're moping in your loft?"

"I'm not moping. I'm cogitating very intently."

"You miss her, don't you."

"I'm in love with her. She's saved my life twice now in as many months. I need her."

"Then why'd you let her leave, if you don't mind me asking?"

He sighed and looked down at his hands. "She healed me the first time when I was sick with the fever. She read this really beautiful letter and told me how much she loved me and I was pretty out of it. I thought she was Lana, even said Lana's name after she'd finished."

"Oh Clark."

"I know," he said, sighing again. "That's when she assumed I'd never love her back and part of her reason for skipping town. I pretty much blew it."

"I suggest that you didn't lose her yet."

"She took off to Europe indefinitely, Lex. Of course I did."

"You just need to get there to see her. Sweep her off her feet. Girls, I've found, love grand gestures and to be pursued."

He snorted. "I can't get to Europe."

Lex shook his head and stood. "If you need the jet, Clark, you merely have to ask."

Walking into The Torch office that Monday was a complete shock. He found Alicia there, pouring over the layout. "Wow."

She grinned up at him and, he realized, had things been different and he'd never met Lois, then he would have liked to get to know Alicia better. "Hey, Chloe did talk me into starting school again. I mostly am into science club but I figured showing some diversity in my skills would attract the Ivies better."

"Well welcome to The Torch, we're a small staff but we work hard."

"How many?"

"Two freshman go-fors and us. Our photographer quit recently and Chloe was the chief editor. I guess I inherited that position when she left."

"To Geneva no less."

"You knew?"

"Yeah, visited her Saturday to help her unpack. I owe her big. I mean, two years ago, if she'd not stopped Genevieve who knows where I'd be or how many pieces?"

Clark shuddered at that, thinking of how many injuries Chloe had weathered, how many deaths. "Well, you're safe here. I...usually I'm a pretty strong guy."

"I noticed she had a charm on you. What's your story, Clark?"

Wasn't that the operative question?

"Oh the type of person you run across in Smallville, a bit unusual. I have superstrength, speed, invulnerability, and I can, well, sometimes set stuff on fire by looking at it." He didn't mention the X-ray vision if only because he didn't want her to think he was a peeping Tom.

"Well, you swept the lottery on that," she replied, smiling. "So, I'm trying to figure out how to set up the front page for tomorrow. You wanna help?"

"I'd love to," he said, pushing the ache away in his chest. Lois wasn't coming back, the least he could do was keep her baby alive at The Torch.

He caught Pete when he went to The Talon to pick up extra fudge brownies on Wednesday. His mom was desperate for about a dozen of them. About five more days and she'd be hopefully done with all this, well, at least delivered. Clark shook his head as he picked up the carry out box and walked over to Pete's booth, slipping into the seat across from his former friend.

"We're not talking," Pete said.

"Obviously not. I...you sold out Chloe basically to Helen and then you told Lana too much about me and it got back to Jason. You got us both in massive trouble with The Teagues-"

"That famous lawyer?"

"Yeah and his crazy wife; we almost died, Pete."

"No way."

"Yes way," Clark replied, playing with the twine on top of his box. "We were friends for over ten years. Don't, please, don't say anything. If you don't care about our friendship now , then at least respect me a little. The more you talk, the better my odds of ending up in pieces or government property become. I can't live in even more fear of that. Please, Pete. You don't have to like me or talk to me or any of that, just don't talk about me at all."

Pete considered that and sipped his espresso. "You almost died?"

"I think so. Genevieve packed a wallet and was very mad at me. Do you really want me dissected?"

"No. I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone."

"Good," he said, standing up. "Keep your lips locked. Bye Pete."

"Bye Clark."

He was running out of friends pretty damn fast.


	21. Chapter 21

21

Clark's mind wouldn't stop replaying the letter she'd written him over in his mind. He'd been such an idiot, taken her for granted for too damn long. He wasn't sleeping. He was barely eating. It took him until Saturday to break down and take Lex's offer (with his mother's blessing of all people) to Geneva. He wasn't even sure if he'd get back in time for Chris's birth or if his plan would work. If he humiliated himself, well, there was always the red eye back home.

He knew that slipping into Chloe's room at night was marginally stalkery, but if this worked he was hopeful that she'd forgive him.

Taking in a deep breath, he knelt by her bed and pulled out the paper he'd been holding. His voice barely a whisper, Clark began:

_I want you to let you in on a secret. I'm not who you think I am either. Mostly, I'm an idiot. I should have seen you earlier. I wish to God I had. I was never hiding anything or trying to be in a masquerade with you, but I know I hurt you so much when I couldn't decide between you and Lana. Lois Lane or Chloe Sullivan, I love you both equally and I want you by my side. I'd never settle for anyone else. You're my partner, my guardian angel, and the girl of my dreams and I'm so sorry it took me this long to see it.  
><em>  
>Chloe rolled over and yawned. "Hmm, Jimmy, I'm tired."<p>

"Oh you have to be kidding me," Clark hissed setting down the paper.

Chloe opened her eyes and winked up at him. Sitting up, she threaded her arms around his neck and kissed him, long and hard. "Yeah, I am."

He pulled back, frowning. "So you want to try?"

"You can win a girl over with words sometimes. I'll try but I'm skittish about everything, after what happened to me. I...you'll need to take time with me."

Clark nodded and kissed her again. "That's fine because I think you're worth the wait."  
>_<p>

**Later in the Spring**

Christopher Gene Kent was born on Tuesday, the 22nd of April.

Clark and Lois both had flown back to New York for everything and, while both might never get over Swann's lies of omission, both couldn't help smiling at the new addition to the Kent family. The miracle child-despite how he got there and there was another thing that Clark couldn't reconcile-whom no one expected, but everyone, even his dad, wanted.

He was long for a newborn and it made Clark smile a little, thinking that his brother might be as tall as he, if not bigger. It made him think of so many things, of fishing trips and Sharks games, of learning about the stars and their heritage, of teaching him all about their abilities, should Chris get them. He found himself rocking him in his arms, staring down at his mom.

She smiled. "Someone's going to make a good big brother."

Lois, who was watching all of it from a chair across the spacious room, grinned. "After Ryan was there really any doubt?"

**Epilogue  
><strong>  
>Not everything was perfect. Clark was still nervous that Pete would break his promise and reveal his secret. He'd been feeling that way, if he were honest, since he'd been slipped the red K by Pete, himself, during the cave parasite fiasco. Clark hoped his friend's admission he wanted no one to be cut up, even Clark, would be enough to save him. He just didn't know. Alicia and Lois got along most of the time, as bright as they were, as many secrets has they shared, he noticed them butting heads over The Torch and, sometimes, he felt even over him, but his heart was firmly taken by one Lois Lane, and that was never going to change.<p>

Still, after a long patrol in Granville, where he'd been amazed to watch his girlfriend in action even now, even after four months of knowing about her ability and her hidden strengths, she seemed preoccupied.

Strolling through the city, her leather coat wrapped around her waist by its sleeves for it was too hot in June to wear it when not protecting one's self from knife wounds, she sighed up at him.

"What?"

"You know you can't hide from the other 'travelers' on Earth forever."

"True."

"And you know if those stones are for you, you'll have to find them."

He sighed himself and shoved his hands in the pockets of his red jacket, swearing when it tore a little. "I have a lot on my plate right now, between worrying about Pete's big mouth and the fact Chris's growth really isn't slowing down. I don't think a treasure hunt is on my docket."

"Lex said he'd help. You could consider it."

He nodded, wrapping his arm around her, and kissing her deeply, feeling the warmth of her love flow through him as a familiar glow lit up the night.

"I promise I will when some of the chaos dies down and we get a handle on things. I'll find the stones and figure out how to trust J'onn again and learn more about my planet. I owe Chris that much. However-"

"However what, Superboy?"

"Well, Nightingale, I think that's a mission for another time."

She kissed him again and, pulling back, laughed. "It's Lane, Lois Lane, and don't you forget it,"

Grinning back at her, he nodded. "Not ever."

And with that, he picked her up and sped her back home.


End file.
